Team India’s Test stalwart Cheteshwar Pujara backed Namibia skipper Gerhard Erasmus over the dead ball controversy in the T20 World Cup match in Delhi. Pujara opined that the umpire Rod Tucker was caught off guard as he wasn’t ready for Erasmus delivering a ball from well behind the bowling crease and hence decided to declare it as a dead ball.
A mini-controversy erupted in the India vs Namibia match at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in Delhi on Thursday, February 12. In the eighth over of India’s innings, Namibia skipper Erasmus bowled a delivery while he was almost next to the umpire. Tucker, however, declared it a dead ball, a decision which did not go down well with the bowler and led to an argument between the two.
During a discussion on ESPNcricinfo, Pujara threw his weight behind Erasmus over the controversy. Without being too critical of Tucker, he commented:
“It wasn’t the case of batter not being ready. But the batter [Tilak Varma] has not pulled out. It’s not the umpire who has to take that call. The umpire has the option to call it a dead ball. But on that occasion, it looked like the umpire wasn’t ready.
“I am not trying to have a go at the umpire, but I still feel like the better thing to say is that, ‘look I wasn’t ready, I couldn’t see that ball from my peripheral vision. Next time, I’ll be ready. The bowler should have the right to bowl that delivery,” the 38-year-old went on to add.
Controversy aside, India beat Namibia by 93 runs in the T20 World Cup clash played in Delhi. Sent into bat, the Men in Blue posted 209-9 in their 20 overs and then cleaned up Namibia for 116 in 18.2 overs. Ishan Kishan (61 off 24) top-scored for India, while Hardik Pandya slammed 52 off 28. With the ball, Varun Chakaravarthy claimed 2-7 from three overs.
Gerhard Erasmus put aside dead ball controversy to finish with 4-20
While India dominated Namibia in the T20 World Cup clash in Delhi, Erasmus had a memorable outing with the ball. The 30-year-old off-spinner registered figures of 4-20 from his four overs.
Erasmus struck with his very first ball of the match, having the well-set Kishan caught at deep mid-wicket. He also had Tilak Varma (25) caught at long-off with a similar delivery to the one that was earlier called a dead ball. The Namibia skipper had Pandya caught brilliantly at deep-backward square and knocked over Axar Patel (0) with a slower delivery.
Edited by Renin Wilben Albert
