Some brilliant catches have been taken in this IPL 2026, but somehow the umpiring, at least on a couple of occasions has been questionable. On Thursday, during the KKR vs LSG encounter at the Eden Gardens, a Digvesh Rathi catch of Finn Allen, raised a few suspicions. The incident occurred during the second over of the Kolkata innings — where opener Allen top-edged one to third man, on the bowling of Prince Yadav.
Was Finn Allen Not Out?
Rathi made some ground, and did well to complete the catch. There wasn’t any dispute raised when the batter was adjudged out, but following replays showed, that Rathi might have just touched the boundary skirting with his boot. While there was no conclusive evidence to show — if it was the boot, or just the shadow, but still, what was more problematic was, technology available wasn’t used to full effect.
Did Digvesh Rathi Touch the Skirting?
Allen was out for 9, leaving KKR at 15/1. This wicket could play a vital role eventually in the context of the match. as KKR have a rather slim bowling line up, and one of the keys of them winning matches is, if Allen gets going.. The Kiwi batter has been hitting at a strike rate of 205 in this edition of IPL, and had he stayed at the crease for another 5 overs, it could have made a difference of 30-40 runs in KKR’s total.
Meanwhile, this incident is not in isolation. Earlier, in the first match of the tournament, SRH’s Heinrich Klassen got a poor decision from the third umpire, when RCB’s Phil Salt caught him at the boundary. Here, just like Rathi’s incident, Salt seemed to be touching the skirting, at least from some angles. He was out for 31 from 22, and could have made a big difference to Hyderabad’s eventual score of 201. They went on to lose that match.
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