‘Catch of the tournament robbed’ – Twitterati react as third umpire adjudges Ravindra Jadeja’s grab unclear

After a couple of humiliating defeats, Team India bounced back, and how! They defeated Afghanistan by 66 runs to open their account in the T20 World Cup 2021 points table. Unlike the previous two games, the Men in Blue ticked almost all the boxes and dominated Afghanistan in all three departments. While the batter did phenomenally well to post 210/2 in Abu Dhabi, the bowlers executed their plans to perfection to complete the win.

While the match witnessed many memorable moments, the highlight has to be Ravindra Jadeja’s brilliance on the field. Arguably the finest fielder going around, the all-rounder has bagged numerous memorable catches over the year. He almost took a stunner against Afghanistan as well. However, the third umpire gave the benefit of doubt to the batting side, adjudging the catch was unclear.

Ravindra Jadeja almost takes the catch of the tournament

It was the second delivery of the 18th over and Mohammed Shami was operating with the ball. He went for a full-length delivery which Karim Janat tried to send over the fence. However, the connection wasn’t proper and the ball seemed falling in no man’s land. Until Jadeja came sprinting in and made a full-length dive to grab the ball.
He seemed pretty confident about the catch being clean and the other fielders lauded him for his effort.

However, the on-field umpires went upstairs with their soft signal being ‘OUT.’ It was indeed a close matter as the third umpire took a significant amount of time to give his verdict. He was stuck at a point where the ball popped out of Jadeja’s hand. The question was whether the ball has touched the turf or not.

The third umpire eventually came to a decision that the ball has hit the ground. Hence, the batter is saved. While several felt the decision was right, a section of social media users opined the decision. Nevertheless, this episode didn’t affect the match much as India crossed the line comfortably. Indian skipper Virat Kohli looked pretty satisfied with his side’s performance as he spoke about the aggressive strategy.

“T20 cricket is a very instinctive game, in batting, bowling and decision-making. We do make decisions on the go. Top three is mostly settled unless situations like today when the openers batted all the way through and the power-hitters were ready. We don’t always decide early to go hard, but we do back ourselves and when we do get going, we know what we can do,” Kohli said after the game.

Meanwhile, let’s look at how Twitterati reacted to Ravindra Jadeja’s effort:

Now thats what you call an effort
Top class effort by #Jadeja
If it was a clean catch it surely was one of the top catches in T20I history let alone this world cup

Pity it was not given out#INDvsAFG #T20WorldCup https://t.co/uDrRwy8TwP

— yash agarwal (@yashagarwal685) November 3, 2021

Jadeja Jadeja had taken the catch. Ground umpire also gave soft signal out. #BSDK third Umpire Aleem Dar(pak) not given out. #MC #BC #INDvsAFG #T20WorldCup #RohitSharma #KLRahul #Ashwin #Shami https://t.co/rF1HgwboIJ

— Ankit Kr. Singh (@Ankit25Singh07) November 3, 2021

That’s a tired call Mr Ump.

— Dale Steyn (@DaleSteyn62) November 3, 2021

What a catch by Ravindra Jadeja, absolutely stunning, but unfortunately that's not out. pic.twitter.com/GQbDEW3wZ0

— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) November 3, 2021

Hard luck, Jadeja. That could have been one of the finest catch ever.

— Johns. (@CricCrazyJohns) November 3, 2021

Catch of the tournament robbed. Sir Jadeja!

— Silly Point (@FarziCricketer) November 3, 2021

Jadeja was winning the catch of the tournament, and then the third umpire happened.

— Saurabh Malhotra (@MalhotraSaurabh) November 3, 2021

Despite the result of catch.Effort was unbelievable#jadeja #INDvsAFG pic.twitter.com/ujzFpGR6ss

— care of cricket (@abhiramsirapar2) November 3, 2021

Jadeja has been denied the Catch of the Tournament. I dont know why it was given notout. The fingers were clearly under the ball. #INDvsAFG #jadeja

— Yahya 🇵🇰 (@KyaaBatHai) November 3, 2021

Third umpire stole Jadeja sir's catch.

— अंशुल (@Ghair_Kanooni) November 3, 2021

Catch of the Decade…??? #Jadeja

— Sharat Mudunuri (@Sharat1408) November 3, 2021

Iss umpire ko famous hona tha…saheen afridi ka no ball nai dikha but bc clear under control catch isko dikh gaya out of control. Fuck all decision. #jadeja

— Abhineet (@abhineet18) November 3, 2021