SRH supporters were unhappy with field umpires Akshay Totre, J Madangopal and television umpire Yeshwant Barde after a DRS ‘no-ball’ call in the penultimate over went against the hosts.
Avesh Khan he threw what looked like a beam at Abdul Samad and Totre ruled it not a no-ball. SRH called for a DRS but to their horror, Barde also decided it in favor of the bowling team.
An angry Klaasen spoke to the referees on the pitch and suddenly LSG coach Andy Flower and mentor Gautam Gambhir were seen along with others on the bench, standing inside the boundary rope, pointing to the stands which are directly behind the area of their team.
It appeared that someone from the crowd had thrown something and there were collective chants of ‘Kohli Kohli’ in their attempt to rile Gambhir in reference to his failure with former India captain Virat Kohli earlier this month.
Once the game began, Klaasen was quickly pocketed in the long run, having lost focus due to the unwanted stoppage.
He didn’t hold back his anger as he spoke to broadcasters during the mid-inning interview.
“I’m disappointed in the crowd to be honest, that’s not what you want. That broke the momentum too, not a great referee either,” Klaasen said.
Even Klaasen, who top-scored with 47, was quick to sense the nature of the track changes.
“The wicket changed quickly in the middle. There was some spin and a decent amount of bounce, there were some rippers (from Krunal – Markram and Phillips’ wicket.) who broke the momentum.
“It was difficult to play with longer balls. I need to bowl long and slower balls into the wicket, it can’t be too full. It’s not a bad wicket, but it’s a bit slow. He can use the natural variations. I think if spinners can bowl the wicket quickly, natural variations can take over,” he added.
(With inputs from PTI)
