ICC World Cup 2019: India vs New Zealand: Did Dhoni lose his wicket to an umpiring error?

The loss of MS Dhonis wicket sealed Indias fate in the semifinal — The loss of MS Dhoni's wicket sealed India's fate in the semifinal

Bengaluru, July 10: India’s World Cup campaign came to an end on a heartbreaking note. The Indian top-order collapsed like a pack of cards with openers Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul and skipper Virat Kohli making their way back to the dressing room after all three scored a run each.

All seemed lost as India languished at 96-6 at one point, chasing a target of 240. But Ravindra Jadeja and MS Dhoni put up a scintillating century-partnership to bring the Men in Blues back into the game. Just when the spirits were up, the match slipped away after Jadeja’s dismissal and the ultimate turning point was Martin Guptill’s direct throw to run out India’s only hope - Dhoni. Following that the tournament favourites fell to an 18-run defeat.

The 38-year-old MS Dhoni walking of the field in his final match of a World Cup and his fourth World Cup was an emotional one. But following his dismissal, another umpiring controversy has come to the fore as Twitteratis shared a video, which sparked a massive argument over whether the delivery was a legal one, cause that could have changed the outcome of the match.

According to the rules in the third powerplay of the match, only five fielders can be outside the 30-yard circle. But a small graphic shows that before the ball was delivered, there were six players outside the ring.

And being the all-important wicket of MS Dhoni, there have been widespread reactions from the Twitterati, with fans slamming the umpires . It brings to notice an important fact, that if the umpires did fail to notice then the delivery would have been a no ball and Dhoni would have gotten a free hit and there’s no question as to how important that would have been at that stage of the game. Following his runout by Guptill, India were bowled out for 221.

Here’s some of the Tweets that came to surface following Dhoni’s runout:

6 fielders outside the circle?

Fans claimed that there were 6 players outside the circle in the third powerplay when the teams are allowed to only have 5 fielders. If the umpires really missed to spot that error, then it was definitely a major umpiring error.

Dear @ICC a ball before dhoni got run out there were 6 fielders out of circle! And in last power play no more than 5 filders allowed! Thank you for amazing umpiring in semi finals! Guptill was outside of circle! Thank you! Dhoni and TEAM INDIA! We support you everytime #INDvNZ pic.twitter.com/BYejkaUpLo
— Manthan V Bosamiya 🇮🇳 (@BosamiyaManthan) July 10, 2019

Powerplay rules

Though the debate was on and the rules of the powerplay was questioned, the fans did throw their support behind MSD and team India.

Hard luck?

While there can be no outcome of the debate, lady luck was surely not on India's side in Manchester on the given day.

Poor umpiring?

Many demanded that the umpires should be penalised for it.

ICC face the heat

Fans did not hold back as they hit out as ICC for the blunder.

Questioned the outcome of the match

The fans went on to question the outcome of the match, with several stating that this could have changed everything and India could have been on the winning side. Well we surely haven't heard the last of that.