New Delhi, March 18, 2021: Twitter was ablaze after Suryakumar Yadav was given out caught by third umpire in what appeared to be a very close call during the India vs England 4th T20I at the Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad.
Suryakumar, who came into the Indian side for this do-or-die encounter due to an injury to Ishan Kishan, was playing a breathtaking knock before this decision cut his innings short.
It happened in the 14th over of the Indian innings. Suryakumar, who had hit a lap shot over fine-leg in the previous delivery of Sam Curran, went for the similar shot in the second ball of the over. This time, however, the fine-leg fielder pushed back and Suryakumar did not get the desired timing.
Dawid Malan came charging in took the catch diving in front. It was a close call as there was enough doubt of the ball touching the ground. The on-field umpires sent it upstairs with the soft signal – ‘out’.
In the end, that soft signal spelt the doom for Suryakumar as the third umpire did not find any ‘conclusive evidence’ to overturn the decision despite seeing multiple replays – with a few of them suggesting there was nothing underneath the ball when Malan took the catch.
Suryakumar, who got his first opportunity to bat at the international level, had to take the long walk back after scoring 57 off 31 balls.
The third umpire’s decision, however did not go down well with Twitteratis.
England won the toss and decided to send India in. Openers KL Rahul and Rohit Sharma put on 21 runs before the latter was dismissed according to the reports published in hindustantimes.com.
Suryakumar walked in at No.3 and hit his first ball in international cricket for a six over fine-leg.
The right-hander hit three sixes and six fours in his innings but none of India’s big guns got going in this match.
Shreyas Iyer (37 off 18) and Rishabh Pant (30 off 23) made useful contributions as India finished with 185 for 8.
For England, Jofra Archer finished with 4 wickets for 33 runs.
India are trailing 2-1 in this five-match series.
