Remember those days when gully matches would be paused and players would look all over for the missing ball? Usually after celebrating a wicket or a boundary, the ball was either lost in the bushes or underneath someone’s car. A similar but funnier incident happened in the Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) when bowler Ankit Rajpoot was asking for the ball from the umpire and no one had an idea where it was.
It happened after the 14th over, when Rajpoot was ready to bowl the first ball after the second strategic time out, but the ball was MIA. The KXIP fast bowler asked umpire Chettithody Shamshuddin and his skipper Ravichandran Ashwin for the ball. Then Ashwin and Shamshuddin got together trying to remember who had the ball before the break.
After a long discussion with Ashwin, Shamshuddin asked square leg umpire Bruce Oxenford whether he knew where the ball was. But seeing the delay, a box of balls was to be delivered on the ground to avoid further confusion. Meanwhile, as commentators were trying to figure out the ball’s whereabouts by watching the replay they saw KXIP spinner Murugan Ashwin hand the ball to Oxenford who signaled for strategic timeout, and then handed the ball to Shamshuddin who inspected it and then put it in his pocket.
IPL Umpiring in a nutshellhttps://t.co/7bwdmpJiFN
— Faizal Khan (@faizalkhanm9) April 25, 2019
The umpire then finally realised that he had the ball all along. The commentators were amused and so were Twitterati:
That’s the whole script of Jab Harry Met Sejal in 2 minutes.
— Sagar (@sagarcasm) April 24, 2019
Such creativity
— Kishan Jhunjhunwala (@Jjworiginal) April 24, 2019
I can hear this picture
Ball kahan hai pic.twitter.com/379BirRLZl
— Adarsh (@LagbhagAdarsh) April 24, 2019
Here’s another angle
So it’s not surprising to see umpires are absent minded in IPL…Common these guys who don’t even remember where they hd put the ball how could you expect from those to spot a no ball…
— चौकीदार देसी इंडियन (@1frm90Migration) April 24, 2019
The consequences of delaying the match should be equal for everyone, right?
Would they cut Umpire’s fee tonight ? No
— Runner (@atulsachan1234) April 24, 2019
Rightly put
That’s umpiring in this years IPL
— Ayush Meena (@AyushMe51461858) April 24, 2019
If only umpires were present in post-match presentation
Umpire has the ball in his pocket and he forgot. ROFL. How can you? #RCBvKXIP
— Bidhan Majhi (@bidhan_16) April 24, 2019
Well, there’s always a first for everything
This is something I have seen for the first time…. the game was held up because the umpire forgot that the ball was in his pocket! #RCBvKXIP #IPL2019
— Rajneesh Gupta (@rgcricket) April 24, 2019
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