Delhi Capitals assistant coach Shane Watson regretted what transpired in the final over of their IPL 2022 encounter against Rajasthan Royals and admitted that the franchise do not stand for what happened at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on Friday night.
Chasing RR’s mammoth 222/2, Delhi Capitals needed 36 runs in the last over with Rovman Powell and Kuldeep Yadav at the crease. Powell smashed his West Indian counterpart, Obed McCoy, for three consecutive sixes in the first three balls before a controversy broke out.
McCoy bowled a full toss on the third delivery which the Delhi Capitals dugout thought was a waist-high no-ball. But the on-field umpires Nitin Menon and Nikhil Patwardhan ruled it a fair delivery and did not refer to the third umpire.
Rajasthan Royals batter Jos Buttler, who hit his third IPL 2022 ton earlier in the match, had a bit of altercation with the Delhi Capitals captain Rishabh Pant before assistant coach Pravin Amre stormed onto the pitch to have a word with the umpires on duty.
“Look, yeah it was very disappointing with what happened in that last over,” Watson, a former Chennai Super Kings player, told the media during a virtual interaction. Delhi Capitals eventually lost the game by 15 runs.
“We unfortunately, were in that position in the game, we were not able to put things together for long enough in that game up until that point. In the end, what we at Delhi Capitals don’t stand for is what happened,” added the Australian.
“The umpire’s decision, whether it is right or not, we have to accept it. And someone running on the pitch, we cannot accept it. It is not good enough,” said Watson. Both Kuldeep and Powell spoke with the umpires but the officials stood on their ground ruling the ball legal.
Pant too gestured both the batters to come out of the ground in anger but Watson was seen trying his skipper to reason him out. Earlier, DC were missing head coach Ricky Ponting in the dugout as one of his family members tested COVID-19 positive hours before the game.
The win took Rajasthan Royals on top of the IPL 2022 points table with 10 points, level with Gujarat Titans and Royal Challengers Bangalore. RR (+0.432) enjoy a better net run-rate than GT (+0.395) and RCB (+0.251).
Meanwhile, Rajasthan Royals, Director of Cricket, Kumar Sangakkara, played safe stating it is the umpires who control the game and he is no one to say what’s acceptable and what’s not. “I think it is the umpires that control the game.
“There is a lot of pressure and tension in the IPL. Things can go either way, when you have a situation like that, in the end, the umpires control the situation. And the game went on. That's how I look at it. I don't think I can really dictate what is acceptable and what's not,” said the former Sri Lankan captain.
After the game, Pant was seen arguing with the umpires beside the boundary rope with the crowd chanting ‘cheater, cheater’ in the background. Even #NitinMenon and #Cheater started trending on Twitter since the incident.
