Watch: TV umpire gives a shocker; Kane Williamson falls to questionable tag team catch

The third umpire on Tuesday (March 29) came up with a highly doubtful decision to give Sunrisers Hyderabad (SRH) skipper Kane Williamson out caught in the IPL 2022 game against the Rajasthan Royals (RR).

Facing Royals’ Indian speedster Prasidh Krishna at the start of his innings, Williamson nicked a short of length delivery to keeper Sanju Samson, who dived but could only glove the ball towards first slip Devdutt Padikkal.

Padikkal took evasive action and ended with the ball in hands and instantly went up in appeal.

In doubt over Padikkal’s take, the standing umpire decided to send the matter upstairs. The third umpire then went through a few close-in replays and ruled the decision against Kane Williamson & company.

WATCH: Sanju Samson’s Brilliant Reverse Sweep Leaves Washington Sundar Clueless

Kane Williamson got a rough deal from the third umpire.

Kane Williamson declared out caught despite debatable grab

The third umpire, however, perhaps got this one slightly wrong as he seems to have assumed the ball closer to the diving Padikkal than it actually was. Replays left enough on the fielder’s take doubt as there appeared to be a tiny bounce on the turf before the ball went into his hands.

From this angle, it seemed imminent that TV umpire KN Anantha Padmanabhan would give Kane Williamson not out for the catch appeal. But to everyone’s shock, he declared Williamson out and forced him to make the long walk back.

*Embed the clip here

While Prasidh and the Royals fielding unit were not complaining at all, the debatable call from the TV umpire would’ve been a huge cause of disappointment for Kane Williamson and the whole of the SRH team after their skipper and the most skilful batter got handed a rough deal.

This, in a stiff run-chase of 211 after SRH struggled with the ball through the first half and allowed the Royals to post a daunting 210/6 in their allotted 20 overs on Pune’s flat batting deck.

Williamson has always been a key batter for SRH and also a very capable leader. The New Zealand batter has made a whopping 1,887 runs for the ‘Orange Army’ at an average of 39.31 while striking at 130.76.