Harsha Bhogle Shared An Important Message After ‘Wide Ball’ Controversy: The end of the Kolkata Knight Riders and Rajasthan Royals game on Monday was a dramatic one with Sanju Samson freely expressing his frustration with umpire Nitin Pandit over the decision of wides in the 19th over, bowled by Prasidh Krishna, during KKR’s chase.
Samson felt that the wide shouldn’t have been given after batter Rinku Singh had moved so far across his off-stump even before Krishna had released the ball that he would have been able to hit the ball. However, umpire Nitin Pandit deemed it wide, leaving the RR skipper unset.
After one of the three controversial wide calls, Samson even demanded to have a review. But the umpire reminded him that reviews cannot be used for wide or no balls. Frustratedly, as a mode of some protest, Samson opted to review one of the wide calls for caught behind. And then later had a heated discussion with umpire Pandit.
This stirred up fans on social media, mostly criticising the umpires for giving it wide even though Rinku was within hitting distance of the ball. Fans and former cricketers have also raised suggestions that reviews should be allowed to be used for wide and no ball calls.
Renowned commentator Harsha Bhogle has now come up with a tweet with a simple urge to those who are lamenting the umpire Pandit’s decision of wide: Bhogle has asked the fans to simply refer to the laws, which state that the ball will be deemed wide if it passes the white line at the corner of the pitch (not just the ‘Wide’ line) irrespective of the batter’s position. That was the case with the third wide of Krishna’s as the ball had gone beyond the white line.
Bhogle also pointed out that if reviews are made available for everything, then the games would last even longer than they currently do.
“There have been a lot of comments on no-balls and wides on my timeline. I would urge most of you to do a simple search for the laws and you would discover that the umpires have been more right than wrong. And if we start referring everything, we will have 5 hour games!” Bhogle tweeted.
There have been a lot of comments on no-balls and wides on my timeline. I would urge most of you to do a simple search for the laws and you would discover that the umpires have been more right than wrong. And if we start referring everything, we will have 5 hour games!
— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) May 3, 2022
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