Chennai Super Kings (CSK) captain MS Dhoni had an on-field argument with the match officials in his team's IPL 2023 Qualifier 1 match against Gujarat Titans on Tuesday, 23 May. The video of the heated discussion went viral as the home side won the match and made It into the finals.
The incident happened in the 16th over when the umpires did not allow pacer Matheesha Pathirana to bowl his second over because he had not spent enough time in the field. Pathirana was out of the pitch for 9 minutes and had to wait for 4 minutes to be eligible to bowl.
This didn’t sit well with MS Dhoni who got into an argument with the umpires and spent four minutes in between the overs. This meant that Pathirana was able to bowl the 16th over of the match, without Dhoni having to move away from his plans.
This incident led to many criticizing Dhoni for wasting time arguing with the umpires to get his way.
But Sunil Gavaskar has shared his opinion and said that the umpires should have been firmer during the game.
"I think we have been taught all the time to accept the umpire's decision. You can obviously ask for a clarification and that's what Dhoni was clearly doing, asking for a clarification. My thinking is that rather than looking at what Dhoni did, you have to look at what the umpires did," Gavaskar said in an interview with India Today.
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"Maybe since it was MS Dhoni, they indulged him and started talking with him but if it was anybody else, they would have gone to their position and set get on. And that is what they should have done," Gavaskar added.
He said that there wasn't any need to point fingers at MS Dhoni, rather the umpires should be questioned here.
"I would not point a finger at MS Dhoni and I would ask the umpire why they took so much time to clarify whatever it was. You don't know what exactly happened, nobody has come out in the middle and clarified what had happened. The umpires, to a large extent, they should have been firm," Gavaskar said.
Meanwhile, CSK successfully defended the 172 runs, keeping GT to 157 and winning by 15 runs. Gavaskar further lauded Dhoni for his captaincy and said that Dhoni made the target look bigger than it was.
"The moment CSK reached 170, with the pitch slowed down. It was clear that with the resources at his disposal, Dhoni was going to make it look like 190. That's what great captains do," Gavaskar said.
CSK made it into their 10th IPL final and now awaits their opponents on May 28 at the Narendra Modi stadium in Ahmedabad.
