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London, Sept 8: It was neither Andrew Flintoff's pace nor Monty
Panesar's guile but Pakistani umpire Aleem Dar's erratic
judgement which soured Sachin Tendulkar's swansong ODI
appearance on British soil in the series decider at Lord's
today. One of the better umpires around, the Pakistani umpire
did little justice to his reputation today by giving two dubious
decisions which totally derailed the Indian innings. Ater Indian
captain Rahul Dravid found himself at the receiving end of Dar's
decision for a duck, it was Tendulkar's turn to be stopped in
his stride.
Tendulkar had just managed a streaky four in
the 16th over which clearly did not amuse England's comeback man
Flintoff. The beefy all-rounder pitched the next delivery fuller
outside the off-stump, inducing a loose drive from Tendulkar
only to see the ball eluding the bat. Behind the stumps, the
ever chirpy Matt Prior still made an overly ambitious appeal,
claiming it a catch and much to everyone's horror, Dar raised
his dreaded finger that had Tendulkar simply livid. Television
replays also showed it was only his bat clipping the pad that
made a noise but Dar felt otherwise.
His knock cut short after a 46-ball stay in
the middle yielding 30 runs, a sulking Tendulkar sauntered his
way back to the dressing room, while the Lord's crowd booed Dar
for spoiling what was the Indian champion's last hurrah at the
game's spiritual home. The decision irked Nasser Hussain too in
the commentary box and the former England captain criticised Dar
for not seeking help from technology that was at his disposal.
Hussain remarked that people spend money to come to the ground
to see players like Tendulkar play and it was surprising to see
that Dar did not seek help from technology," he said.
Hussain may had his reasons to make such an
observation as it was the second successive error in judgement
for Dar. In the 14th over, Dravid had fallen to a dubious
decision by Dar, again Flintoff being the bowler. The strapping
Englishman pitched it on back off a length as Dravid changed his
mind, and dropped his bat deciding not to play the shot. There
was a noise again and Prior, England's cheerleader-in-chief, was
soon joined by his teammates and their vociferous appeal did
manage to get Dar's nod.
Given out for a duck, Dravid was aghast by
the decision, for the bat had only flicked the pad and made no
contact whatsoever with the ball. Dravid shook his head in
disbelief and grumpily walked off. For Tendulkar, this was not
the first time that he had been done in by poor umpiring. On the
contrary, his last tour of England has been marked and by poor
umpiring decisions and often Flintoff benefited from the
goof-up. In the second ODI, he was one run shy of a hundred
before umpire Ian Gould ruled him out caught behind off Flintoff
after the ball had come off his arm guard.
Never the one to crib about umpiring
decisions, Tendulkar had said "I guess, I have missed four or
five hundreds in the last two months." He also said that he has
started taking such things lightly and erratic decisions only
made him laugh. (Agencies)
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