Gautam Gambhir felt the catch could have changed the game in KKR's favor.
Former Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) captain Gautam Gambhir and ex-England cricketer Graeme Swann criticized the third-umpire during KKR's clash against Punjab Kings (PBKS). There was a controversial decision by the third-umpire after fielder Rahul Tripathi took an important catch which was ruled not-out.
The incident took place during the 19th over of Punjab's run-chase when Tripathi dived forward to attempt a catch after KL Rahul hooked the short delivery from Shivam Mavi towards the mid-wicket boundary.
The third umpire was convinced that the ball had touched the ground and he ruled it not-out in PBKS' favor. However, no run was scored off that delivery and the equation remained 11 runs off 9 deliveries for Punjab, which they later scored to register a win.
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Gambhir and Swann slammed the third-umpire for the decision and they felt it was a ridiculous call to rule the catch not out. "That was a shocker. This can end someone's campaign. It was clearly out. He shouldn't have even seen the replay more than once. Even without the slow-mo, it looked out.
"Things could have changed. We have seen Punjab panic in the last over. These sort of shockers cannot happen, especially at the level of IPL. It could be very unfair not only to the player but to the entire franchise," said Gambhir on Star Sports' post-match show.
Swann ended up calling it the worst piece of third-umpiring he ever witnessed. "I have just witnessed one of the worst bits of third umpiring in my life. That is blatantly out. Running in and taken a brilliant catch. That is superb. It's out in full motion," he said.
"That shouldn't have been looked into anyway but they have looked at it, there is none of that silly soft signal anymore. The third umpire has somehow not got the cricketing knowledge to know that's out. He's looked at it from four or five angles that we saw up close and it never looked not out at any point. And yet he gave him not out. It's terrible umpiring. That was just a joke," Swann added.