After his team’s 8-wicket defeat at the hands of Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB), Gujarat Titans (GT) skipper Hardik Pandya expressed his frustration that the technology did not come to their rescue when Matthew Wade was adjudged LBW in a controversial call.
Wade’s dismissal off Glenn Maxwell once again sparked the DRS debate with UltraEdge not showing any spike, although it seemed that the ball had deflected when it passed the bat.
See Also: The way Maxwell played made us feel we were 10 runs short - Pandya after GT's loss to RCB
“I think it was slightly there (spike) in the ultra-edge. From the big screen, it was not visible. Because you can’t fault, if technology is not helping, then I don’t know who’s going to help,” Hardik said at the post-match press conference.
Wade was furious with the decision as he was certain that he got an under edge while attempting a sweep shot off Maxwell.
The southpaw immediately for a review after the on-field umpire declared it out. Despite a clear deviation in the ball’s trajectory before it struck the pads, the UltraEdge did not detect it and the third umpire upheld the on-field umpire’s call.
“Obviously, it is nothing personal from anybody but technology sometimes helps, sometimes does not. This time it did not help. But most of the time it has worked and kind of over-turned decisions and most of the time the right decision has been taken,” he added.
Coming to the match, GT posted 168/5 on the board after electing to bat first. Captain Pandya was the top scorer with 62 not out off 47 balls.
In reply, RCB rode on Virat Kohli’s 54-ball 73 and vital contributions from Glenn Maxwell (40* off 18 balls) and Faf du Plessis (44 off 38 balls) to overhaul the target with 8 balls to spare.
Asked about his decision to hold back pace duo of Mohammad Shami and Lockie Ferguson, Hardik said: “We wanted to give Lockie the opportunity, but the wicket was holding a bit. So we wanted to go for bowlers who bowled slower ones and took pace off the ball.”
“In hindsight you can say this guy didn’t ball, that guy didn’t ball, but at that point we did what we felt was right. We were always there in the game but that one over with Maxwell coming and scoring 18-ball 40 took the game away from us.
“Otherwise no matter who didn’t bowl or who bowled, we were always there in the game, so for me it was fine,” he further said.
Despite their loss, GT retained the top spot on the points table. They will play Qualifier 1 in Kolkata on 24th May.
“The kind of season we had, it was always important to finish in top two because it allows you to have one bad day and give yourself a second opportunity if you are having a bad day,” he concluded.
(With PTI inputs)
