‘So, how’s this…’ – Hardik Pandya’s wife Natasa Stankovic reacts to his dismissal against NZ in 1st ODI

Apart from the batting heroics of India’s Shubman Gill and New Zealand’s Michael Bracewell, what attracted the headlines was the controversial decision of the third umpire on Hardik Pandya’s dismissal. The incident left the TV umpire on the receiving end of criticism from cricket fans and experts as well.

The incident happened on the fourth ball of the 40^th over when Hardik was batting 28 runs. Pandya went on to defend Daryl Mitchell’s delivery that the latter angled toward the batter. The ball passed very close to the stumps followed by collection from wicketkeeper-skipper Tom Latham. Although bails came off the stumps during this. Subsequently, the decision was referred up the stairs to the third umpire who later came up with the decision of ‘out’.

The decision didn’t go down well with a lot of Indian supporters, in the same sequence, Hardik Pandya’s wife Natasa Stankovic also expressed her disappointment with the decision. She took to her official Instagram handle to post a story registering her dissent on the same.

“There was no bat involved, wasn’t bowled out. So, how’s this out?” wrote Natasa in her Instagram story.

Here’s a look at the Instagram story of Natasa Stankovic:

Earlier, commentator Ravi Shastri also looked dissatisfied with the decision, and he went on to address it on-air.

“Oh, it’s been given out! Daryl Mitchell should be happy,” Shastri said on-air. Should really be happy, because, if you take a look again as to where the keeper’s gloves are, where the ball is as it passes the stumps, it looked as if the ball was at least an inch, inch-and-a-half above the stumps … ball clearly looks to be above the bail. You can see as it goes past into the gloves, there’s no red light, it’s only after that. There you go. From that angle you can see that the gloves are closer to the bails than the ball,” said Shastri on-air during the commentary.