Last Updated:
Rajat Patidar raised eyebrows with his bizarre move which made the third umpire look at his DRS call once again to overturn his previous decision.
Rajat Patidar’s knock was in vain as MP suffered a loss to Mumbai in the SMAT 2024 final. (Image: X)
Rajat Patidar who led Madhya Pradesh in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy 2024 final against Mumbai had an interesting approach when he was displeased with a decision taken by the umpire in what was initially the final delivery of the innings.
Asked to bat first, MP had to rely on the skipper’s brilliance to help them take a defendable first-innings score. But the interesting moment took place in the final over where Patidar was not pleased with the umpire’s decision of not calling a wide in the now penultimate delivery. Despite the DRS call not being in MP’s favour, Patidar insisted that the umpire have a look at the decision again, which certainly raised a few eyebrows.
The delivery bowled by the Indian all-rounder, Shardul Thakur was a slower ball which went near the popping crease which prompted the MP skipper to go upstairs. His refusal to leave the field meant that the umpire had to check their call once again.
The third-umpire KN Anantha Padmanabhan, was quoted by the Indian Express saying, “Extremely sorry, the ball had pitched outside the popping crease. I did not see that,” the TV umpire said on-air. This extra delivery gave Patidar the chance to improve their score as he smashed the full-toss down towards the long-off region for an easy six to end the innings on a more positive note.
However, Patidar’s knock went in vain as Mumbai got the win thanks to some fine knocks by the Indian T20I captain, Suryakumar Yadav along with some late cameos by Suryansh Shedge to give them the win by five wickets and 13 balls to spare.
Patidar who has experience of playing in Bengaluru, certainly stood out with his blistering shot-making and will hope that he can go with a similar approach in the upcoming IPL season.
MP despite making their first final in 13 years in the competition, were unable to get the job done as Mumbai managed to add their second SMAT 2024 title in three years. Shreyas Iyer who led the team has also now added yet another trophy to his collection, having won the IPL, Irani Cup and now SMAT as the skipper.
