Tuesday’s IPL group stage game saw the Royal Challengers Bangalore emerge victorious over their royal rivals from Rajasthan. Thanks to some brilliant batting from Shahbaz Ahmed and Dinesh Karthik, RCB fetched 2 crucial points and managed to hand RR their first defeat of the season.
Our highlight from Tuesday’s match, however, features a high-intensity moment from Rajasthan’s batting innings. Rajasthan’s new import this season, Devdutt Padikkal, looked to be in a rich vein of form against his erstwhile IPL franchise. Batting at number 3, the southpaw compiled 37 off 29 balls, hitting 2 fours and as many sixes.
Virat Kohli claims a stunning backward catch of Devdutt Padikkal; umpires not sure on fair play
Funnily enough, it was Devdutt’s former RCB-teammates, Harshal Patel and Virat Kohli, who cut short his impressive stay at the crease. Harshal, bowling the 10th over of the match, lobbed a slower-one at Padikkal, on which the latter managed to get a thick outside edge.
But the ball didn’t quite go the distance; as it dropped at the point region, where Virat Kohli claimed a fabulous backward running catch to send DDP back on his way. Except Padikkal didn’t quite make his way back into the hut, as the on-field umpires asked him to stay on the field. Apparently, they wanted to be sure if Kohli had claimed the catch clean or if the ball had made contact with the ground.
3rd umpire is just against RCB today. First that catch of Virat Kohli and now that no ball in the last over. Poor. pic.twitter.com/RdWq5nLsv8
— SportsBash (@thesportsbash) April 5, 2022
3rd Umpire asks Devdutt Padikkal to stay, Meanwhile he was Checking a Clear Catch by Virat Kohli.
RCB team’s Reaction says it all. Even Virat Kohli was Shocked 😮 pic.twitter.com/CJU17k2aVo
— SportsBash (@thesportsbash) April 5, 2022
What a catch King Kohli 🔥🔥. #IPL2022 #RCBvsRR #ViratKohli #CricketTwitter pic.twitter.com/63RXxsMzBo
— Harshit Poddar (@harshitpoddar09) April 5, 2022
The former RCB captain wasn’t too pleased with the umpires for trying to confirm what seemed to be a straight-forward dismissal. He was even seen walking up to umpire Anil Kumar Chaudhary to have a few words about the logic of the TV referral.
Meanwhile in the RCB dugout, head coach Sanjay Bangar was also spotted with his eyebrows raised at the confusion surrounding Padikkal’s dismissal. Eventually, TV replays confirmed that Virat had claimed his catch clean; but things did get somewhat heated during the aftermath of the catch.
Brief scores: RCB 173/6 (Shahbaz Ahmed 45, Karthik 44*, Chahal 2/15) beat RR 169/3 (Buttler 70*, Hetmyer 42*, Harshal 1/18) by 4 wickets.