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Mohammed Siraj criticized the umpiring for what he felt were ‘six or seven’ wrong calls in Hyderabad’s 58-run loss to Vidarbha in the 2025 Ranji Trophy. One of the umpires in the match was Akshay Totre, who won the BCCI’s Award for ‘best domestic umpire’…Read More
Mohammed Siraj (AP Photo)
Mohammed Siraj felt ‘six or seven’ calls from the on-field umpires Akshay Totre and Navdeep Singh in the 2025 Ranji Trophy match between Hyderabad and Vidarbha were wrong and played a ‘big role’ in the visitors’ 58-run defeat at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Ground in Nagpur.
Vidarbha were bowled out for 190 in the first innings and Hyderabad took control of the match by taking a 136-run lead in the second. The hosts roared back through a century from Karun Nair and a half-century from Harsh Dubey to set a target of 220 but Hyderabad were bowled out for just 161.
“The performances from both sides were good, but the umpires had a big role to play. I understand they are human and capable of making mistakes, but getting six or seven decisions wrong in a single match is not acceptable,” Siraj, who was playing his first Ranji Trophy game after almost five years, told Sportstar.
He also lauded his young teammates, saying: “The [Hyderabad] players have a great attitude. They are willing to give their lives for the team. This is only their first season; they will improve a lot going forward, learning how to play according to the situation.”
Interestingly, Totre was presented with the award for ‘Best Umpire In Domestic Cricket’ at the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI)’s annual Naman Awards function in Mumbai on Saturday.
Siraj is also not the first player to complain about the standards of umpiring in the Ranji Trophy.
“What to say. This has been going on for years and there’s nothing much that we can do about it. Umpires are human after all and can make mistakes. But had they been a bit more attentive, it would have been fun,” the Times of India quoted Jammu and Kashmir captain Paras Dogra as saying after their match against Mumbai.
“But it’s part and parcel of the game. That’s why they got DRS. It would have been a good experience to have DRS here, but we can’t control it since there are 10-15 games happening simultaneously. So, it does not make any difference.”
The DRS system is only used for knockouts in the Ranji Trophy.
