| Points: | 5 |
|---|
And the Player of the Match goes to....the Umpire!!
At the end of a cricket match, there will be the award ceremony with the much-awaited announcement of the name of the cricketer who will win the rich cash prize for the Player of the Match award. Typically, it is awarded to the player who scores the highest runs or a player for an all-round performance with both, the bat, and the ball, and on rare occasions we will see a bowler getting it for taking a lot of wickets.Let's talk about the current IPL matches. With this type of short format, there is excitement in plenty, this year more so with the edition going back to the home-and-away format. Thus teams play a game in front of their home crowd, and one in front of their opponent's fans. We have seen huge totals in many matches this year and watched in awe and total disbelief when it seems a team is 100% going to lose, but snatching victory in the penultimate over, and even the last ball! Two just moments come to mind, one was then the Punjab team's batsmen ran three runs on the very last ball against Chennai.
Another jaw-dropping moment came when Rajasthan Royals stunned Sunrisers Hyderabad with Abdul Samad hitting a six after the umpire called the last ball bowled by Sandeep Sharma a no-ball. So, even while everyone was celebrating the RR win in the stands and in the dugout, with even the fireworks going off on the boundary lines, there was the umpire, calmly indicating a no-ball!!
Seeing that, I was thinking to myself - the umpire should get the player of the match award! After all, alertness is the key to their role and they often enough get flak for poor decisions.
