IPL 10: Rohit did not shout at the umpire, remarks Harbhajan Singh

Amidst all the cricketing action in the Maharashtra derby between Mumbai Indians and Rising Pune Supergiant, the moment that caught the attention of all was the ‘wide ball’ gate. Veteran MI player Harbhajan Singh recently reflected back at the incident after the match. The action perspired during the Mumbai run chase. They were set a target of 161 to win by the RPS.

Despite having seen a middle order slump, they had their hopes intact for the reason that they had their skipper Rohit Sharma at the crease. Rohit looked set after his fifty and hence the hosts backed themselves to win the game despite needing 17 runs in the final over. Jaydev Unadkat took the wicket of Hardik Pandya on the first ball of the final over and was then smacked for a six by Rohit.

On the next delivery, Rohit shuffled across to his off stump, and Unadkat followed him. Rohit left the ball hoping it would be called as a wide. But, the umpire ruled it in the favor of Unadkat. Rohit was absolutely baffled with the call and was seen having a word with the umpires. Apparently, many believed that he was being too rude in barging at the umpires.

However, Harbhajan Singh spoke in the favor of his skipper. He noted that even he felt it was a wide ball. Also, Rohit only enquired about the wide ball rules and nothing else.

“I mean ball toh kaafi bahar tha (the ball was well outside), to be honest. I don’t really know if it was actually a wide ball or not. If both the legs move, then the bowler should get the margin. If only one leg moves, like it had happened, then I feel it is a wide. In the end, you have to go with the umpire’s decision,” quoted Harbhajan Singh as per the quotes in Cricbuzz.

“He (Rohit) wanted to check what is actually the rule then, so that where he needs to stand. He didn’t shout at the umpire or ask why it wasn’t given a wide. He just wanted to know where he should stand for the wide to be called and he was told that the amount he moves is the amount of margin the bowler gets,” he added further.

In the game, Harbhajan reached a personal milestone. He completed 200 T20 wickets in the game when he managed to clean up RPS skipper Steve Smith. He remarked that he tried bowling a little slow on the Wankhede track. He further added that varying the pace is the key to success in the tournaments such as the IPL.

“Firstly, I have been just trying to bowl the best I can, and bowl a bit slower on this track because Wankhede is not the kind of wicket the more you bowl fast you’ll get anything out of it. The faster you bowl, the further it’ll go. You have to basically bowl slower in the air and make the batsmen play the big shots. You need to utilise the bounce of the red soil. I just use my experience to bowl to different batsmen, obviously varying speeds is very important, and that’s why I’ve gone for less than 6 in the tournament,”