Rohit Sharma: What went wrong here? Rohit Sharma’s baffling dismissal via DRS | Cricket News – Times of India

NEW DELHI: Was there a genuine edge off Mumbai Indians captain Rohit Sharma’s bat that resulted in him having to walk back to the pavilion in Monday’s IPL match vs KKR?
The KKR players felt there was a genuine edge indeed, but there were very many across the world, who were watching, who felt that Rohit and MI were given a really bad decision, thanks to technology or more specifically the Decision Review System (DRS).
WHAT HAPPENED
This was the last delivery of the first over of the Mumbai run chase. The 5 time champions, who are struggling big time this season and are already out of the playoffs race were jolted early thanks to this rather dubious DRS call.
Tim Southee was the bowler and bowled a back of a length ball to Rohit, who was looking at defending the ball and seemed to have missed it. The ball looked like it had missed the bat and then ricocheted off his back leg to the KKR keeper Sheldon Jackson who took a low catch. KKR players appealed, but the on-field umpire gave it not out.
Jackson convinced KKR skipper Shreyas Iyer to ask for the DRS review and that’s when the real drama began.

THE SPIKES THAT CONFUSED EVERYONE
Incredibly, the Ultra-edge technology showed all kinds of spikes, even before the ball had reached the line of the bat. There was also a spike detected while the ball passed the bat, even though, to the naked eye, it looked like there was a gap between bat and ball.

Everyone watching was taken aback that there were such large, outrageous spikes on the monitor even before the ball had reached the line of the bat. The third umpire, who had to follow the instructions, in terms of going by what the technology is saying, asked the on-field umpire to reverse his decision. Rohit was given out.
MILLIONS, INCLUDING ROHIT SHARMA LEFT STUNNED
The MI captain stood there for a long time, shaking his head in disbelief. The MI camp, including Head Coach Mahela Jayawardene looked completely stunned. It was in a way a reflection of what millions across the world were feeling at that time. Rohit though had no choice but to walk back. MI were reduced to 2-1. They eventually lost the match by a huge 52 run margin.

(BCCI/IPL Photo)
WHY WERE THERE SPIKES BEFORE THE BALL PASSED THE BAT?
So what really happened there? The Ultra-edge technology, which is part of DRS is used to differentiate between sounds of the ball brushing the bat, pads, clothing etc.
This is done via a system of stump microphones and cameras in the stadium. The system tracks the various different frequencies of sounds and in turn relays that further to a monitor where the frequency of a definite contact translates into a spike on a monitor. So, when there is a spike when the ball goes past the bat, it’s clear that the batter has got an edge and if there’s a flat line, then there’s no edge.

However, what was really surprising on Monday was that spikes were visible even before the ball crossed the bat. This could potentially be because of a faulty stump microphone or the mic picking up some other sounds.
Whatever the reason might have been for multiple spikes on Ultra-Edge in this case, the umpires should be given the authority to stand by a logical decision, regardless of what technology is saying, if the results are clearly either wrong or debatable. Technology can malfunction and that is when human intervention is needed. Hopefully the powers that be will look into this soon.

FANS UP IN ARMS
Understandably, this has become a huge talking point on social media and most fans feel that Rohit was not out. After all, there seems to have been a very good chance here that the technology malfunctioned.