VIDEO | On-field umpire trolls Rishabh Pant with late decision after batsmen try to sneak quick single

2020 seems to be the year where umpires have come out with the ‘why should players have all the fun?’ attitude. Be it Aleem Dar’s Usain Bolt impression in the Australia vs New Zealand Sydney Test or Greg Davidson scratching his nose to troll Rashid Khan in a BBL encounter, the men in charge of the decisions seem to be in a mission to make a name for themselves - the unorthodox way. And today at the Wankhede, India’s Chettithody Shamshuddin came up with a contender for the ‘umpiring moment of the year’ award with a bizarre act of his own.

Pat Cummins, who already had figures of 1/30, came up for his last spell of the game and after Shardul Thakur took a single off the first ball of his 9th over, facing him was Rishabh Pant, who was all but the only recognized batsman left for the home side. It was only natural that Pant was looking for big hits with just seven overs left in the game and unsurprisingly, realizing that, Cummins bombarded the youngster with a bouncer. Pant, who was caught off guard with the bouncer, could only manage to get an inside-edge and spoon the ball to Ashton Turner fielding at backward point.

However, as Cummins, certain that Pant was out, ran towards the fielder to celebrate, the on-field umpire Shamshuddin remained still as a rock, almost reluctant to rule the batsman out. At that point of time, it looked like Pant was incredibly going to get away with it, but just as the batsmen decided to sneak a quick single, almost 8 seconds after hitting the ball to the fielder, the umpire bizarrely raised his finger, ruling the southpaw out.

Pant didn’t have any complaints, however, as replays clearly showed that he had inside-edged the ball onto his helmet before lobbing it to Turner. Not exactly sure if Shamshuddin has outdone Greg Davidson’s antics, but he sure has done a fine job in making the whole world talk about him.