Top 10 controversies in IPL 2020

The IPL 2020 is well past the halfway mark and the mid-season transfer window is now open for teams to trade players. This season, as always, has kept both fans and players at their toes. And as usual, the middle portion of the points table is a mess. Along with all the entertainment and some miraculous performances, IPL 2020 has had a fair amount of controversies as well. Here, we look at the top ten controversies to hit IPL 2020:

Suresh Raina balcony controversy

Controversies started hitting IPL even before the season had formally started. CSK stalwart, Suresh Raina, allegedly returned to India from UAE after he was denied a room with a balcony as demanded. The allegations were soon rubbished by Raina himself, but not before it made a place of its own amongst the trending news and memes.

The short-run

In the very second match of the tournament between Delhi capitals and Kings XI Punjab came a very bizarre umpiring decision. Chasing 158 to win, KXIP were cruising to victory when the Mayank Agarwal and Chris Jordan decided to steal a couple in the final over. The umpire, Nitin Menon, felt Jordan had not crossed the crease while completing the first run and hence deemed it a short run, but the replays showed otherwise. This decision came to haunt back KXIP as the match ended in a tie and they lost the Super Over.

DRS after third umpire’s verdict?

KXIP found themselves in the middle of yet another controversy in their match against Sunrisers Hyderabad when Mujeeb Rahman decided to challenge the third umpire’s call. KXIP were in a deep hole when Mujeeb knicked one to Jonny Bairstow off Khaleel Ahmed. The on-field umpire sent it upstairs to check if the catch was clean. The third umpire decided to favour the bowling team and Mujeeb started to walk. But to everyone’s surprise, Mujeeb turned back and asked for a DRS as the third umpire had not checked the ultra-edge. The ultra-edge showed a slight knick and ultimately Mujeeb was given out.

Sunil Gavaskar v/s Anushka Sharma

Sunil Gavaskar found himself in the midst of a controversy with Anushka Sharma after he made some comments about Virat Kohli and Sharma, while on air. Gavaskar was accused of making a ‘distasteful’ comment by Sharma after a clip of his commentary during the match between RCB and KXIP went viral on social media. Gavaskar, though defended himself and thankfully the controversy soon fizzled out.

Corrupt approach reported

The ghosts of 2013 came back to haunt IPL fans this season when a player reported to the BCCI about an approach for match-fixing. The chief of BCCI’s Anti-Corruption Unit (ACU), Ajit Singh, confirmed the about approach. The name of the player who was approached remains confidential and there have been no further reports ever since.

Tom Curran DRS

This incident happened during a match between Rajasthan Royals and Chennai Super Kings. During the 18th over of RR’s innings, Tom Curran was given out by the on-field umpire. An unconvinced Curran expressed his displeasure about the decision and the on-field umpires decided to send it upstairs after deeming it out earlier. The fact remains that RR had already used up their quota of DRS and this decision irked the CSK fans.

James Neesham v/s Aakash Chopra

In one of his YouTube videos, Aakash Chopra criticised KXIP’s decision of playing James Neesham. Chopra went on to term the all-rounder “not a match-winner”. When a fan pointed this out to Neesham on twitter, the witty Kiwi responded, “Averaging 18.5 and striking at 90 doesn’t win many matches either,” taking a dig at Chopra’s IPL career.

Ashwin refrains from Mankading

There were a lot of talks surrounding Mankad before the start of the tournament when Delhi Capitals’ head coach announced that he won’t allow Ravichandran Ashwin to affect a Mankad dismissal this season. Cut to the match between, DC and RCB on 5th October, Ashwin had a brilliant chance to Mankad Aaron Finch and claim a wicket for his team. To everyone’s surprise, Ashwin decided not to dismiss Finch and instead let him off with a warning. This incident again brought back all the ‘spirit of cricket’ debates with the cricketing world divided into two.

MI twitter messes up

This shocking incident took place in Mumbai Indians’ last match against Delhi Capitals. MI’s twitter handle ended up tweeting the final score of DC in the very first over of the match. While the MI twitter tweeted DC scoring 163/5 in their 20 overs, DC managed a very similar score of 162/4, sparking widespread debates of match-fixing among the netizens.

Paul Reiffel retracts his decision

Umpire Paul Reiffel came under the line of fire yesterday during the match between Chennai Super Kings and Sunrisers Hyderabad. During the 19th over of SRH’s chase, Reiffel almost spread his arms to signal a wide, when the CSK captain MS Dhoni gave the umpire an angry stare forcing the umpire to retract his action. The replays though showed the ball to be clearly outside the wide tramline and so started the debates of spineless umpiring during the IPL 2020.