The Kolkata Knight Riders Head Coach, Abhishek Nayar, criticises the umpiring blunders in the match against the Lucknow Super Giants on Thursday night. The dismissal of Finn Allen sparked controversy, with allegations regarding an unfair catch. Digvesh Rathi was the fielder who caught the ball, and at first look, the catch seemed perfectly clean. But, when the catch was shown on replay, there was a slight movement visible on the white cushion, which hinted at a possibility of the fielder’s foot touching the boundary line.

However, the catch was deemed to be a clean one, and Finn Allen was dismissed early on in the innings. The X viewers expressed their views on the platform, claiming that umpires waste time on the obvious decisions and when it comes to difficult decisions, they are quick to arrive at a conclusion. This is the second incident of such a call in the season, after the controversial catch of Phil Salt in the dismissal of Heinrich Klaasen against RCB in the first game.

 

Umpiring lapse sparks outrage despite advanced technology in place

The Kolkata Knight Riders were put out to bat first, and it was a decent pitch to bat on. KKR have been winless in this season so far, and they were hoping to finally kick off their campaign. Finn Allen and Ajinkya Rahane knew that they had to maximise the powerplay to set the stage for a huge total. Finn Allen is known for his power-hitting as he has displayed some phenomenal hitting with the bat in the first two games for his side. Finn Allen initiated the proceedings with two quick boundaries from his bat in the power play. Then later on in the 2nd over, Finn Allen fell for the bait put by Prince Yadav, who hit the length outside off, and it hit the top-edge of the bat, flying towards Digvesh Rathi at deep third, who took the catch.

This is where the controversy happened, as on replay, it didn’t seem like it was a fair catch. The controversial catch of Digvesh Rathi to dismiss Finn Allen was what sparked the debate. "We are very disappointed that such poor umpiring is happening. We were deliberately deprived of six runs, and a decision was given out without checking anything. When so much technology is available, why wasn’t it reviewed? In such a crucial match, if we had gotten those six runs today, we could have won the game. These are very vital decisions. It even feels like these things are being done against us in a pre-planned manner. Very poor decisions, this is simply unacceptable," said Abhishek Nayar, the KKR Head Coach.

The controversy gained importance gradually in the game as the Lucknow Super Giants chased the target off the very last ball, taking a single. The KKR Head Coach does have a point, as if they were given six runs instead of a wicket, it would mean that Finn Allen could have played more, changing the whole complexion of the game. But, another angle could be that if the runs on the board were more, the approach of LSG could have also changed. They controlled the chase in such a manner that the target that was set could be achieved, and if the target was more, they would have targeted more runs off every over. So it wouldn’t be fair from an LSG point of view to say that this incident was the reason why KKR lost the game.

The problem that concerns the management and the fans is that, despite the complexity of technology that is available, such errors are still taking place. In the richest cricket league in the world, such mistakes don’t have a place, and the BCCI should take strict action to ensure that such errors are not repeated in future matches.