Umpire Ravi's howlers contribute to India's defeat

A couple of horrendous decisions by Indian umpire S Ravi contributed to India's six-wicket defeat to arch rivals Pakistan in the first cricket ODI in Chennai on Sunday.

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New Zealand's Billy Bowden and S Ravi were the two on-field umpires for the series-opener and some of the decisions by the Indian went against the home team which also lost a crucial toss under overcast conditions at the MA Chidambaram stadium.

The Indians were done in by some poor umpiring by Ravi in the first ball of the 18th over off-spinner R Ashwin.

Centurion Nasir Jamshed, who was batting on 24 then, misjudged a flighted ball from Ashwin which took the inside edge off his pads and Virender Sehwag took a smart catch at first slip. The Indians initially appealed for a leg before and then for a catch but Ravi turned down the appeal.

Luck again favoured the visitors in the 28th over when a loud shout for leg before against Younis Khan was turned down by Ravi with Ashwin being the bowler again. Younis, who was on 46 then, missed his sweep shot and got hit in front of middle and off but the verdict went against the Indians.

Both Jamshed (101 not out) and Younis (58) were largely responsible for rebuilding the Pakistani innings as they were struggling at 21 for two at one stage and the umpiring errors proved costly for the Indians. The duo put on a 112-run partnership for the third wicket which put the visitors on course again.

The quality of Indian umpiring has not been quite upto the mark in recent times which is reflected by the fact that no Indian umpire is in the list of ICC's Elite panel.

Former Indian captain S Venkatraghavan was the last Indian umpire on the panel but since his retirement no other umpire has made it to the list.

India have four umpires in the ICC Emirates International Panel. They are Sudhir Asnani, S Ravi, Vineet Kulkarni, C Shamshuddin.

Photograph: BCCI