WATCH | Kumar Sangakkara fumes at ‘horrible’ third umpire decision during SRH vs RR clash. Netizens say ‘made no sense’

Technology plays an important role in the decision making process in the modern game. However, despite the use of replays and other tools in making umpiring calls, a lot of decisions made by the Third Umpre have come under the scanner recently, leading to criticism by players and users on social media. In the latest iteration of this occurrence during the Sunrisers Hyderabad vs Rajasthan Royals clash on Thursday, RR Director of Cricket Kumar Sangakkara was left fuming as the third umpire ruled against his team’s favour.

The event occurred during the 15th over of the match in Hyderabad when Avesh Khan bowled a wider yorker to Travis Head, which the left hander completely missed and lost his balance. At the same time Head got a little out of his crease and skipper Sanju Samson took advantage of his fact to dart the bowl straight at the stumps.

The final decision over Travis Head’s dismissal, however, had to be made by the third umpire who looked at multiple angles before finally pressing the ‘Not Out’ button. Interestingly, the camera angles clearly showed that Head’s bat was in the air while the ball hit the stumps, leading to a visibly frustrated Kumar Sangakkara taking the issue up with the fourth umpire.

The controversial decision didn’t make much of an impact at the end, with Avesh Khan cleaning up Travis Head on the very next ball and ending the left-hander’s innings on a score of 58.

SRH clinch 1 run win against RR:

Sunrisers Hyderabad setup a total of 201/3 in their quota of 20 overs on Thursday, thanks to some incredible batting effort from Travis Head and Nitish Kumar Reddy. In reply, the Royals looked in deep trouble as they lost two quick wickets of Jos Buttler and skipper Sanju Samson on a duck. Later on Yashasvi Jaiswal and Riyan Parag stuck together a partnership to take RR closer to the total. After the wickets of Parag and Jaiswal, however, the two Caribbean boys Shimron Hetmeyer and Rothman Powell took it upon themselves to take their team to the finishing line.

In the end, though, SRH pacer Bhuvnesh Kumar got the better of Powell on the last delivery of the match to clinch the game in his side’s favor and seal the game by the narrowest margin possible.