NEW DELHI: In a bizarre turn of events, third umpire Anantha Padmanabhan stirred up chaos, changing the on-field wide decision and then re-reversing it during the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy Final clash between Mumbai and Madhya Pradesh in Bengaluru on Sunday.
The entire episode turned into an embarrassment as the umpire gaffe saw him apologising for his mistake right at the end of the first innings.
The drama unfolded on the final ball of the MP innings, when Shardul Thakur fired in a full ball wide outside the off stump to a shuffling MP captain Rajat Patidar.
Despite Patidar going across, the on-field umpire signalled it as a wide.
Mumbai then sent the on-field decision upstairs which the third umpire turned, deeming it as a legal delivery.
A stunned Patidar then refused to leave the field and gestured to the on-field umpires where the ball had pitched. The MP skipper then had a word with the square-leg umpire and the third umpire was forced to re-visit his decision.
As the ball had pitched outside the marker, the Patidar shuffle did not matter and should have been given a wide.
Realising his bad call, third umpire Ananthapadmanabhan then said on-air, “Extremely sorry, the ball had pitched outside the popping crease. I did not see that”, overturning his own initial non-wide call to wide in a chaotic end.
Patidar then hit the final legal ball of the over over the fence for a maximum as MP finished at 174 for eight.
Mumbai however chased down the target in just 17.5 overs to clinch the title.