VIDEO | Terrible umpiring surfaces in BPL again as umpire deceived by Shakib’s overconfidence

Be the HotSpot-less, RTS-less DRS appeal to give Steve Smith out or the Windies review confusion, Bangladesh have done a PhD on how to make an umpiring howler. And that’s one of the major reasons why despite having many star players, it has failed to attract more viewers to the venue. The league added another chapter to its ridiculous umpiring saga when the on-field official gave the soft signal as out.

In the 7th over of the Rangpur Riders innings, Sunil Narine bowled a slow off-cutter which became even slower off the pitch after sticking to it. The pitch deception made Mohammed Mithun susceptible as he lost his shape and ended up chipping it towards short-mid-wicket where Shakib al Hasan was stationed. The ball was in the air for a sufficient amount of time, but given it went a bit wide, the Bangladeshi all-rounder had to make a full stretch to get hold of the catch.

Shakib managed to cover decent ground as well to grab that up, but there was a confusion that the ball might have bounced off in front of the fielder. However, Shakib was very confident after taking the catch and signed the umpire to go upstairs by gesturing the third umpire signal. Despite the umpire not being sure whether it was out or not, he gave the soft signal as out.

The third umpire, however, found out that although the fingers were underneath, the ball had touched the grass before that and it couldn’t have been out. Shozab Raza, the third umpire for the match, overturned the decision and asked Mithun to continue.