Rajasthan Royals (RR) skipper Sanju Samson's dismissal against Delhi Capitals at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi on Tuesday night in IPL 2024 led to a huge controversy.
Sanju looked in control during the 222-run chase and was batting on 86 when he was caught on the long-on boundary off Mukesh Kumar's bowling. West Indian Shai Hope seemed to have taken the catch cleanly near the ropes. A couple of TV replays suggested that the foot hadn't moved but another angle looked unclear. The RR camp was unhappy that third umpire Michel Gough made the decision rather hastily.
Sanju's dismissal tuned the tide in DC's favour as RR lost their way from 162/3 to end up with 201/8.
However, RR team director Kumar Sangakkara played down the incident. "It depends on, you know, the replays and angles and sometimes you think the foot's touched. But it's a difficult one for the third umpire to judge. The game was at a crucial stage, so that happens in cricket. (We've got) different perspectives on it but you know at the end of the day you got to stand by that decision of the third umpire (is what) the umpires did. If we have any other kind of opinion on it, we'll share it with the umpires and sort it out. I thought irrespective of the dismissal, we still should have probably seen that game home but I thought Delhi played really really well. And they fought till the end and they were very smart with their bowling at the backend," he said after the game.
