"Award him" - Ravichandran Ashwin lashes out at third umpire for Prithvi Shaw's dismissal during the DC vs GT 2024 IPL game

Rajasthan Royals (RR) off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin has lashed out at third umpire Akshay Totre for his controversial decision during the 2024 IPL game between the Delhi Capitals (DC) and Gujarat Titans (gt) at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi on Wednesday, April 24.

Gujarat Titans skipper Shubman Gill won the toss and opted to bowl first. The incident in question happened during the fifth ball of the fourth over, which was bowled by Sandeep Warrier.

The GT pacer bowled a shorter delivery forcing DC opener Prithvi Shaw to play a pull shot. The mistimed shot was sensationally caught by Noor Ahmed at deep square leg.

Since on-field umpires Ulhas Gandhe and KN Anantha Padmanabhan were unsure about the legitimacy of the catch, the decision had to be taken upstairs to the third-umpire Akshay Totre, who deemed it a clean catch and ruled Shaw out when the batter was on 11 runs.

The standard of umpiring has been a major talking point in IPL 2024, raising the eyebrows of fans, players and the pundits. Ashwin took to his official X handle to express his concern, saying:

"Whoever the third umpire of this game #DCvsGT is, award him for top notch decision making."

A much-needed victory for the Delhi Capitals in their 2024 IPL campaign

Hosts DC eventually posted a massive total of 224-4 in 20 overs as skipper Rishabh Pant and Axar Patel smashed the hapless Gujarat Titans bowlers all over the park. Chasing 225 runs for their fifth victory of the season, the Gujarat Titans managed to score 220-8, thereby losing the contest by four runs.

Even half-centuries from Sai Sudharsan and David Miller weren't enough to secure two points for GT. Meanwhile, it was a much-needed victory for the Delhi Capitals, who suffered a crushing 67-run defeat at home at the hands of SunRisers Hyderabad in their previous encounter.

With the win, the 2020 IPL runners-up are currently placed sixth in the points table with eight points (-0.386 net run rate) from nine matches. Meanwhile, GT are seventh with the same number of points (-0.974 net run rate) as Delhi.