Awful India. Worse Umpiring

Now I won’t go so far as to say that the umpires were biased today when Sri Lanka bowled India out for 103 in Dambulla, but it is hard not to let the idea of it creep into one’s mind. The cricket public doesn’t know when random events aren’t so random – we can only guess – and we’ll probably never know whether there was anything untoward about about the four bad decisions that went Sri Lanka’s way in what was a must-win match for the team and the tournament organisers. There probably wasn’t anything untoward about it, but try tell that to a cynic. Or an Indian.

The combination of being involved in a rained-out fixture and failing to grab a bonus point in their win against New Zealand (the only match where a team has failed to earn the extra point) meant that a loss today would have seen Sri Lanka crash out of the tournament. Of course in that case the remaining Round 2 match between India and New Zealand would have been a dead rubber but now it is a semi final.

Everyone guessed something was up when Pakistan somehow lost that Test to Australia in Sydney nine months ago. No side could lose from there. Players were banned by their board – some indefinitely, some for life – but fixing was never actually admitted. Although I don’t think anyone in the world who knows more than the difference between a spinner and a pace bowler doesn’t believe that certain players in that team conspired to lose that match.

Today Asad Rauf (Pakistan) got one decision right and one horribly wrong. But the one he got wrong was a shocker, adjudging the last man standing, Yuvraj Singh, to be LBW to Lasith Malinga. The ball was missing off stump by miles. But today the cake goes to Kumar Dharmesena, for the worst day at the office I have seen anyone in a Fly Emirates shirt have for some time.

The Sri Lankan official, standing in his 18th ODI, has a playing record that reads 69 wickets and 838 runs in 31 Tests and was awful, for the Indians at least. He was good to his countrymen though as he gave Sehwag LBW when the ball pitched outside leg and all three stumps were showing. He kept up his form by somehow hearing a nick where Snicko heard none as he raised his finger to Dinesh Karthik and then gave exactly the same harsh treatment to Suresh Raina.

One can’t say India’s poor showing was all about the umpiring. It wasn’t. They were ghastly. It was a filthy display out there. But it is tricky to come back from 26 for two, when neither man was out. And two or three more shockers along the way don’t help.

Of course Sri Lanka had no trouble in scaring up the requisite 104 runs for victory in front of a boisterous crowd as Jayawardene (33 off 35 balls) and Dilshan (35 off 23) broke the back of the target before the dinner break. The eight wicket loss was India’s heaviest ever defeat in terms in terms of number of balls remaining as Sri Lanka knocked off the wining runs with 209 balls remaining.

It was the fourth one-sided match out of five in this series. The fifth having been rained out. What a topsy turvy lot of nonsense it has been so far. The only exciting moments have been a no-ball controversy that denied Sehwag a hundred and some torrid umpiring, both things we would rather put behind us. Let’s hope for a good virtual semi and a better final.