Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma was a frustrated man on Monday. After his team restricted Kolkata Knight Riders to 165/9 in 20 overs, a lot was expected of Rohit Sharma -- the batter. However, he could not contribute much. Rohit fell for just two off six balls in the first over of the chase, bowled by KKR pacer Tim Southee. More than the score, it was his dismissal that created a lot of buzz. To add to it, MI lost the game by a massive 52 runs for their ninth loss of the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022.
The incident happened on the last ball of the first over of the MI innings.
Cramped for space against a delivery that was coming towards his hips, Rohit Sharma went back to steer a shot towards the on-side. However, the ball looked to have brushed his thigh pads and was caught by KKR wicketkeeper Sheldon Jackson, who was convinced that Sharma was caught behind.
The on-field umpire gave the MI skipper not out but KKR went for the DRS. Replays and Ultra-edge showed spike even before the ball was near Rohit Sharma's bat. There was a spike when the ball was near the bat too. However, third-umpire Bruce Oxenford from Australia took a quick call to overturn the on-field umpire's decision.
Rohit was not at all pleased by the decision and could be seen talking to umpire Sadashiv Iyer on his way out.
"He is the captain. He wanted to be there and get the runs. But there was a big movement there ( on Ultra-edge) for the third umpire to really raise that finger and overturn the decision. Again Southee is experienced. He has got a lot of wickets. He always feels when he has another guy," Ravi Shastri, former Indian cricket team head coach, told official broadcasters after the match.
Earlier, Jasprit Bumrah finally rose to the occasion with a five-wicket haul to restrict KKR to 165 for nine after being sent into bat. Venkatesh Iyer (43 off 24 balls) and Nitish Rana (43 off 26 balls) starred with the bat for KKR.
MI failed to chase down the target as they were bowled out for 113 in 17.3 overs. Ishan Kishan top-scored (51 off 43) for MI. Pat Cummins picked up three wickets, giving away 22 runs.