CHENNAI: The race of getting ahead into the final not only made players coming hard on each other but also affected the umpire’s concentration during the crunch 40 minutes on the mat.
The second Eliminator in Mumbai between Puneri Paltan and Patna Pirates saw umpires halting the match for about five minutes to sort out a few technical issues.
“When the match was halted for that long, it had an impact on the rhythm of my teammates. The match changed completely after it resumed,” said Pune captain Deepak Hooda told Sakal Times after the match which Pune lost 32-42 against Patna.
Even before this incident, the co-ordination between umpires looked mismatched.
With six seconds to go into the half-time, the umpire standing on the left side of the mat continously whistled for Puneri Paltan’s raid while the right side umpire called out for halftime with two seconds remaining.
Players behaviour too was another aspect that made it difficult for umpires. In the 36th minute, Sandeep Narwal of Puneri Paltan and Vijay from Patna Pirates both were shown yellow cards as they got involved in a verbal spat during the raid and umpire gifted one technical point to each team.
Even during the past few occasions, teams were not completely satisfied with umpires and officials.
In the Pune leg, Manjeet Chhillar captain of Jaipur Pink Panthers was not happy when Deepak Hooda was given two points. His claim was Deepak had already taken a pause in ‘Chant’ while umpires gave points in Pune’s favour.
