There was a lot of confusion around the dismissal or rather non-dismissal of Ajinkya Rahane at the MCA BKC Ground in Mumbai during the ongoing Ranji Trophy game between Mumbai and Jammu & Kashmir. The 36-year-old was given out caught behind before he was called back five minutes later as the umpires signalled a no-ball.
Batting at No. 4, Rahane walked in with the score of 55/2 in the 15th over. He held one end up as Mumbai continued to lose wickets at the other end. Mumbai lost Yashasvi Jaiswal, Shreyas Iyer and Shivam Dube with Rahane still at the other end.
On the first ball of the 25th over, Rahane was strangled down leg-side and was given out caught behind. He walked back to the dressing room and Shardul Thakur who was the next batter made his way out to the middle. However, the umpires asked Thakur to wait and such was the scene that it seemed like the Mumbai seam-bowling all-rounder was timed out.
But Rahane appeared back on the ground. The on-field umpires (S Ravi and Navdeep Singh Sidhu) declared that the delivery which dismissed the Mumbai skipper was called a no-ball. Umar Nazir was the bowler.
JioCinema who is the official broadcaster did not show the replay of the no-ball that was called. According to Cricbuzz, the third umpire’s footage was not available to the TV production team.
Meanwhile, Nitin Goel who was officiating as the third umpire and match referee admitted that the hara-kiri was largely because of the delay in communication. He said that the walkie-talkie was on a different channel.
“When I tried reaching out to the umpire on the walkie-talkie, the umpire was on a different channel. So, it took some time to communicate to the on-field umpire. Rahane himself appeared on the screen, indicating that he did not hear the umpires asking him to wait. It was a clear no-ball and there was no doubt about it. I will send the relevant footage to the BCCI,” Nitin Goel was quoted saying.
Rahane got another life but he didn’t last long after that. He was dismissed in the 27th over by the same bowler. Paras Dogra took an excellent catch at cover as Umar Nazir got the big wicket of the Mumbai captain.
Rohit falls on 28 but Shardul Thakur’s counter-attacking hundred helps Mumbai fight back
After falling for just 3 in the first innings, Rohit Sharma made 28 in the second. He struck two fours along with three sixes and looked fluent in his 35-ball stay at the crease. However, the India ODI and Test captain couldn’t convert his start and failed to get a big score once again.
After Rohit’s dismissal, Mumbai collapsed from 54/0 to 101/7. They were staring at defeat as they had a lead of just 15 at that stage.
But Shardul Thakur walked in and smashed a stunning hundred. He counter-attacked beautifully and stitched an unbeaten 173-run stand with Tanush Kotian for the 7th wicket. Thakur is batting on 113 and Kotian is unbeaten on 58 as Mumbai have reached 274/7 (lead of 188) at stumps on day two.
