PBKS vs MI: "Mumbai Indians have fixed the umpires?" Former Australian legend asks BCCI to do this

Are the Mumbai Indians fixing decisions with the 3rd Umpire? If not, then one should have definitely watched the game between MI and the Punjab Kings last night at the Maharaja Yadavindra International Stadium in Mullanpur.

Several decisions that weren't supposed to go in Mumbai's favor, actually went their way and questions are now being raised upon the decision-making of 3rd Umpires. So much so that former IPL-winning head coach Tom Moody has suggested having specialist 3rd Umpires. 

Tom Moody was among those expert pundits, who were keeping a close eye on the contest between two bottom-half teams, Mumbai and Punjab. The first incident that should be mentioned is the DRS appeal from Rohit Sharma, early on in the 2nd innings of the match.

Harshal Patel had bowled a fuller length delivery to Rohit which went and struck straight into the latter's backfoot. The first impression showed that it was a very close call and that Rohit was going to get out. 

However, as the former MI captain took the DRS, after a few minutes of pause for unknown reasons, the ball tracking showed something that totally baffled all of us.

Harshal Patel's straighter delivery didn't really move much but the Hawkeye displayed that the ball was moving away from Rohit towards fine leg and missed the leg-stump on its way. That gave Rohit a lifeline but then it also raises questions about the credibility of the DRS and the 3rd Umpire. 

What intrigued Tom Moody to ask for specialist 3rd Umpires?

There were another 2 controversies that took place last night and intrigued Tom Moody to have specialist 3rd Umpires. The first controversy took place in the final ball of the 15th over bowled by Punjab's Arshdeep Singh.

The left-arm pacer had bowled an outside off-stump delivery to which, opposing batter Suryakumar Yadav failed to reach out in time but the on-field umpire had not given it wide. 

Meanwhile, in the MI dugout, Mark Boucher, Kieron Pollard, and Tim David were seen watching the replay of the ball and then asked Surya to go for the review.

Upon noticing it, Punjab captain Sam Curran went to the umpire and pointed out that MI batters were getting signals from the dugout and that it was absolutely unfair. However, the umpire didn't do anything and last night's 3rd umpire Nitin Menon firmly gave it a wide. 

Then in the 19th over, a wide yorker from Sam Curran, which actually went under on-strike batter Tim David's bat, was given wide after the latter had taken a review against the on-field umpire's decision.

The ruling says that a ball will not be given wide if it is within a batsman's reach and the ball, which was given wide after DRS, was actually pretty much within David's reach. That decision triggered quite a lot of us and Tom Moody became the first to express his views.  

"It’s time we considered having specialist 3rd umpires, too many questionable decisions are being made. Some umpires are better suited on the field, the 3rd umpire requires experience and a certain skill set." - Tom Moody wrote via X (formerly Twitter). 

MI go 7th in IPL table

Meanwhile, after so many controversies, the Mumbai Indians won the game by 6 runs and went 7th in the league table after playing half of their matches.

They are in a must-win situation from now on as a loss can deplete their chances of reaching the playoffs in IPL 2024. Their next away match will be against table-toppers Rajasthan Royals on April 22nd.