IPL 2020: Twitterati react after umpire Paul Reiffel backs out from giving a wide against SRH

Chennai Super Kings (CSK), captained by MS Dhoni, would have breathed a sigh of relief on Tuesday, October 13. The Yellow Army managed to beat the Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) by 20 runs at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium to register their third win of the tournament out of their eighth match. The triumph got the Super Kings up to the sixth position in the points table.

Batting first, CSK racked up 167 runs for the loss of six wickets in their quota of 20 overs. Shane Watson, not opening for the first time in this IPL, and Ambati Rayudu scored in the 40s and guided their team. Sam Curran, who was promoted as an opener, didn’t flatter to deceive by any stretch of the imagination. The left-hander scored 31 off 21 balls with the help of three fours and two sixes.

Skipper Dhoni and Ravindra Jadeja also played a couple of cameos in the end to propel the yellow brigade’s score. For SRH, Sandeep Sharma, Khaleel Ahmed, and T Natarajan picked up two wickets each. Interestingly, Rashid Khan, their premier leg-spinner, didn’t get a wicket, giving 30 runs.

In the run-chase, CSK were clinical, to say the least. Barring Kane Williamson, who scored 57 runs off 39 balls with seven fours, none of the SRH batsmen looked threatening. A number of batters got starts, but couldn’t carry on. In the end, the Orange Army finished on 147 for the loss of eight wickets.

Controversy against Paul Reiffel
Apart from the jaw-dropping brand of cricket, the game has also a bit of a controversy at the fag end of SRH’s run-chase. When the Sunrisers needed 25 runs off 11 balls, fast bowler Shardul Thakur bowled a wide yorker to Rashid, who failed to make a connection. Umpire Paul Reiffel was about to stretch his arms to signal a ‘wide’, but in the end, the veteran backed out.

When Reiffel was about to give the ‘wide’, CSK skipper MS Dhoni and Thakur seemed a tad unhappy. After the umpire backed out from signalling the ‘wide’, David Warner, from the dug-out, wasn’t a happy man by any means. In the meantime, the users on Twitter also had their say on the matter.

Here’s how the netizens reacted:  

Difference between angry and umpire bullying captain and how to behave captain #umpire #SRHvsCSK pic.twitter.com/DZR8Nr9QPI

— Srhism (@Srhism1) October 13, 2020

What kind of behaviour is this from umpire ??😂😂
We used to see such things only in gully cricket 😂#CSKvsSRH #umpire pic.twitter.com/shyA0W98g1

— Tanmoy Das ⭐️ (@TanmoyD40237473) October 13, 2020

Warner could’ve walked onto the field and argued about that wide like Dhoni did last year against RR, but thankfully he’s not ‘ Captain Cool’ 😑#CSKvsSRH #Dhoni #Umpire pic.twitter.com/CEEJEOEibO

— Cricket Blog and Memes 🏏🏏 (@edgesandsledges) October 13, 2020

#Umpire shameful and not in the spirit of game pic.twitter.com/xtCvblPkBs

— Amitk (@Indrabeing) October 13, 2020

Timely Reminder that Kane Williamson didn’t argue with the umpire in the WC final 🙏

— Pooran❤^infinity (@Ohyessabhi) October 13, 2020

That was not cricket from @msdhoni ,you can’t put pressure on the umpire like that and also umpire should have gone with his decision,dhoni is not bigger than the game of cricket. Last yr he came from outside to force the umpire to give it no ball,now forced to not give it a wide

— Hemant Gulia (@HemantGulia) October 13, 2020

2019 – MS Dhoni walking out to argue with the umpires.
2020 – MS Dhoni giving in a stare and the umpire drops his hands.

Thala and umpires – you can write a book about it. https://t.co/tbgrVOFw5e

— Siddarth Srinivas (@sidhuwrites) October 13, 2020

This Halloween I’ll dress up as MS Dhoni and scare Paul Reiffel. 🎃 #CSK #CSKvsSRH #IPL2020

— Sritama Panda (@realcrickpanda) October 13, 2020

Yet CSK wins Fair Play awards👏#Dhoni pic.twitter.com/VNOPvRttDg

— Chandan (@ChandanNagaraj_) October 13, 2020