The ongoing Bangladesh Premier League witnessed a sloppy decision by the umpire that triggered confusion over the dismissal of Cumilla Warriors batsman Bhanuka Rajapaksa ‘over a no-ball’ to keep the game at hold for around two minutes.
The incident happened on Monday during the match between Cumilla Warriors and Dhaka Platoon at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium that looked to be somewhat weird, reports Cricfrenzy.
Rajapaksa was batting at 20 when he was caught at boundary line from the third delivery of Wahab Riaz’s first over and the decision of Rajapakse’s dismissal was later overruled as Riaz was found overstepping the ‘no-ball-line’ while delivering that ball.
Rajapaksa immediately walked off the ground while new batsman Yasir Ali Chowdhury took to the middle. However, television replay of the delivery revealed bowler Wahab had overstepped for a no-ball.
On-field umpires, Gazi Sohel and Prageeth Rambukwella soon called Rajapaksa back to the middle and find Dhaka Platoon players and the dugout disappointed.
While TV umpire Morshed Ali Khan found out that it was a no-ball by that time the Sri Lankan was already gone inside the dressing room and put his pad off while new batsman Yasir Ali Rabbi also entered into the ground.
Though, in this case, reserved umpire Moniruzzaman did not instruct Rajapakse to wait while he did not have any confirmation from the TV umpire. Dhaka Platoon opener Tamim Iqbal backed by his teammates was found speaking to the on-field umpires over the decision while head coach Mohammad Salauddin looked shocked standing at the dugout.
The game was interrupted for a couple of minutes the umpires tried to cool down Dhaka Platoon players and justify the decision to call back Cumilla batsman Rajapaksa to bat again.
Question was raised if a batsman that has gone out of the field can come back to bat again. BPL T20 technical committee chairman Raquibul Hasan clarified there was nothing wrong with the umpires calling the batsman back to bat
“It is not a fact that the batsman had gone out of the field of play. The umpires can get a batsman back to the middle until the next ball is bowled if they think it was a not out. But the on-field umpires should have been careful and should stop the batsman from going out until assured,” explained former Bangladesh captain Raquibul to the media of the incident on Monday.
Rajapaksa was batting at 20 when he took the walk in and out of the field. The right-handed batsman later capitalized the opportunity and scored an unbeaten 65-ball 96 with four boundaries and 7 over boundaries and get Cumilla post 160 runs losing three wickets after 20 overs.
