New Delhi: On Sunday (November 15), the last match of the ODI series between India and New Zealand was played at the Bay Oval ground in Mount Maunganui. One such mistake by the umpires came to light in the match, which raised questions on their alertness. When play started after the drinks break, the wrong Indian batsman was present on strike. Along with the on-field umpires, even the third umpire could not catch it.
The matter is of the 14th over of the Indian innings. Akshar Patel took a run on the last ball of New Zealand bowler Blair Tickner. In such a situation, Akshar should have struck on the first ball of the 15th over. But when the players returned to the field after the drinks break, Shreyas Iyer was seen on strike. That means the next over was started by the wrong batsman. This change did not go unnoticed and the game continued. This mistake regarding strike on a big stage like international cricket has raised questions on the responsibility of umpiring.
Even the third umpire could not catch the mistake
Paul Rifle and Wayne Knights were playing the role of on-field umpires in this match. Questions are being raised on his monitoring due to lack of attention to which batsman should have the strike after the 14th over. At the same time, third umpire Kumar Dharmasena also could not catch this mistake. Because of this, there was no chance to correct the mistake. Umpires are expected to monitor the condition of the batsmen after every over. When play resumes after a pause such as a drinks break, it is also important to check whether the correct batsman is on strike or not. In this case this important thing was missed by all three umpires. A technical problem also came to light during the match. Due to a power failure at Bay Oval, the broadcast team could not get live images of the ground. Due to this, viewers faced difficulty in watching the live telecast of the match for some time. Electricity problems also affected the match.
Playing-11 of both the teams
India's playing-11 included Rohit Sharma, Ruturaj Gaikwad, Virat Kohli, Shreyas Iyer (captain), Ishan Kishan (wicketkeeper), Axar Patel, Naman Dheer, Aaqib Nabi, Yash Thakur, Arshdeep Singh and Mohammed Siraj.
For New Zealand, Will Young, Tim Seifert (wicketkeeper), Nick Kelly, Dean Foxcroft, Finn Allen, Michael Bracewell, Mitchell Santner (captain), Christian Clarke, Matthew Fisher, Jacob Duffy and Blair Tickner took the field.