Rohit Sharma fined for questioning an umpiring decision

Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma has been fined 50% of his match fees for showing dissent towards an umpiring decision during the match against the Rising Pune Supergiant yesterday at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. Rohit who scored his maiden IPL 10 fifty looked in good touch during his innings. He looked set to take MI over the finishing line but a lapse in concentration cost him badly as he gave away his wicket in the final over of the match.

The incident occurred during the final over of the match when Jaydev Unadkat was bowling. The left-arm seamer dismissed Hardik Pandya in the very first ball of the over but Rohit smashed him for a huge six over the long-on boundary to bring the calculation down to 11 of 4. With Rohit out there, MI was looking the favourites but an umpiring decision again tilted the scales in favour of Pune.

Unadkat bowled a short of length delivery way outside the off stump. The right-hander shuffled across his off stick but the ball was still nowhere near his reach. The cricketing laws say that an umpire is entitled to not give a wide if the batsman had enough chances to hit the ball but in reality, despite shuffling, the ball was way outside the off stump ad it was a baffling decision, to say the least.

Rohit went up to the umpire and was literally fuming. He had a brief interaction with them before going back to his crease to bat again. He was shell shocked which might be the reason which brought his downfall in the very next delivery. While attempting another big shot, Rohit top edged the 4th delivery of the final over straight up in the air and the bowler completed the catch on 2 attempts.

The MI skipper “was fined 50% of his match fee for showing dissent at an Umpire’s decision during his team’s VIVO Indian Premier League (IPL) 2017 match against the Rising Pune Supergiant at the Wankhede Stadium,” said the IPL media release.

“Mr Sharma admitted to the Level 1 offence 2.1.5 of the IPL Code of Conduct for Players and Team Officials. This is Mr Sharma’s second Level 1 offence this season,” added the media release.

“For Level 1 breaches of the IPL Code of Conduct, the Match Referee’s decision is final and binding,” the statement said.