Sandeep Sharma bowled Rohit Sharma during an IPL 2023 clash at the Wankhede Stadium with a beautifully disguised knuckle-ball. However, opinions were divided over the dismissal.
Sandeep continued with his outstanding record against Rohit at the IPL. He has now dismissed the India captain five times in the IPL, conceding just 38 runs in 44 balls bowled to him.
Having already made room to play an inside-out shot, Rohit found himself stranded at the crease, caught in two minds. He had not read Sandeep’s beautifully disguised 111kph knuckle-ball, and could only watch as the ball brushed the off-stump and knocked a bail off.
As the Rajasthan fielders celebrated, Rohit walked back to the pavilion for a five-ball three. Ishan Kishan, Cam Green, Suryakumar Yadav, Tilak Varma, and Tim David later powered Mumbai Indians to the first chase in excess of 200 at the Wankhede Stadium in IPL history.
There was not much of made of the incident at that point. Rohit seemed convinced of the legitimacy of the dismissal, as did the umpires, Vinod Seshan and Virender Sharma. None of the three thought it worth referring to TV umpire Tapan Sharma.
All three would have heard the noise of the impact, which was indicative of a cricket ball hitting the stumps.
However, a particular slow-motion video from behind Sandeep’s arm, did the rounds on social media, creating doubts in the minds of some. This showed that the bails had only lit up after the ball entered Samson’s gloves, with the suggestion that the bail might have fallen after the gloves of Sanju Samson, Rajasthan’s wicketkeeper-captain, had brushed the wicket.
https://twitter.com/ciniplus34/status/1652750485202554881
There was a similar incident in a game between India and New Zealand earlier this year, in which Hardik Pandya was seemingly wrongly given out bowled after Tom Latham’s gloves had flicked the stumps.
However, replays from other angles clearly revealed that Samson had been standing some distance away from the stumps when the ball hit the stumps and the zinger bails lit up.
That put to rest whatever doubt that might have been created by the zoomed-in video from the straight angle.
This video from the side on angle shows Sanju Samson was far from stumps, and the ball dislodged the bails in Rohit Sharma’s dismissal. Sometimes pictures from specific angles depict a completely different story. #RohitSharma #IPL2023 #MIvsRR pic.twitter.com/KXcT1RdEJu
— Ridhima Pathak (@PathakRidhima) May 1, 2023
