IPL 2020 | Third umpire should have made the ruling of short-run, opines Tom Moody

On Sunday, Delhi Capitals beat Kings XI Punjab in a roller-coaster match that ended with the first Super Over of IPL 2020. Marcus Stoinis’ was adjudged Man of the Match for starring with both bat and ball to help his side get over the finishing line. For KXIP, Mayank Agarwal (89 off 60 balls) nearly pulled it off but Stoinis became the point of difference with his brilliant last over where he defended 13 runs and forced the game into the Super Over by dismissing Agarwal and Chris Jordan off the last two balls.

However, a controversy broke out in the second last over, as Kagiso Rabada’s third ball was sliced away towards the extra cover region by Agarwal for a quick couple. The on-field umpire Nitin Menon deemed it as a single, on the basis that the first run was a short one. However, replays showed otherwise and indicated that the call was a dubious one. 

Former SRH coach Tom Moody opined that the decision should have gone upstairs. Further, he made an interesting point stating that the rules for incidents like these should be clearly defined.  

“Things like these are not through until incidents like that happen. Without a doubt, the third umpire should have made the ruling but what I will say is they needed to clear that it is part of the rules prior to the start of the tournament and clearly it isn’t part of the rules. Yes, the no-ball goes upstairs and the third umpire is in charge of that your run-outs and stumpings. But they haven’t declared that any other incidents like that the third umpire can overrule the on-field umpire so until that happens we’re not gonna get the full engagement of the technology that’s available,” Moody said on Time Out show of ESPNcricinfo. 

Sanjay Manjrekar seemed to agree with the point of view of Moody that the call should have been made by the third umpire. He reiterated that the communication should have been made to the on-field umpire to arrive at the right decision. 

“It’s not umpire’s error. Because technology provided a replay and one saw the replay. So, I get a little irritated when decorum takes precedence over common sense. Nitin Menon made the call, I don’t blame him at all. But on replay when you saw that the batsman has made it, there should have been a quick communication with the umpire on the field to arrive at the right decision,” Manjrekar added.