Indian Premier League 2 : IPL 2 : IPL 2009

MUMBAI: Suresh Shastri, third umpire of last night’s thrilling IPL tie between Mumbai Indians and Kings XI Punjab, on Thursday said he simply went by the law book in the match where the hosts appeared to be at the receiving end of a few contentious run-out decisions.

“I don’t want to make any comments. I can only say I went by law 28.1 (The wicket is down),” Shastri said when his comments were sought in response to Mumbai Indians’ skipper Sachin Tendulkar’s veiled criticism of two decisions that were referred to him by the on-field officials.

Law 28.1 deals with what constitutes a wicket put down. According to the law, the wicket is put down if a bail is completely removed from top of the stump, or a stump is struck out of the ground by either the ball, striker’s bat, part of his clothing or equipment, by a fielder with his hand/arm providing the ball is held in the hand.

“The whole world has watched what it was all about. So I would leave it at that. I will leave it to the team management to see if they want to do anything about it,” Tendulkar said at the post-match media conference.

“Everyone has seen what happened and in whose favour the decisions eventually went. Had we got those two run out decisions our way, we would have added two more runs to the tally and won the match,” Tendulkar said after the team’s six-match winning streak came to a halt in the nail-biting finish.

The two decisions, which went against Mumbai Indians in the match which the visitors won by one run, related to run-out appeals against Punjab XI batsman Luke Pomersbach and the hosts’ Dwayne Smith.

Pomersbach, who made 79 not out and put on a century stand with Australian compatriot Shaun Marsh, was given the benefit of the doubt earlier in his innings by Shastri.

The TV umpire ruled in the batsman’s favour when on-field umpire Billy Bowden referred a run-out appeal following a superb throw from the deep by Shaun Pollock that hit the stumps directly at the non-striker’s end.

Other sources said the umpire felt that bowler Smith’s leg had disturbed the bails before the ball hit the stumps which led him to rule in the batsman’s favour.

Later Shastri upheld Punjab XI’s run-out appeal, again referred to him by the on-field umpire, against Smith following a touch-and-go situation when the bowler with the ball in hand was Piyush Chawla who, replays indicated, did not take off the bails in the first attempt.