Pakistan Cricket faced a disgrace on Saturday when the second ODI against New Zealand was briefly halted by the umpires to change the 30-yard circle. The match being played in Rawalpindi had to stop for a while after the first over as the umpires were seen instructing the ground staff to correct the measurement of the 30-yard circle. It was a ridiculous situation when the umpires themselves started reducing the circle.
According to an update on the Pakistan news channel Geo News website, after the first over was bowled, the umpires felt that the 30-yard circle was not correct. This happened due to the change of pitch at the last moment. After that the umpires tried to change that circle. A popular umpire Aleem Dar then corrected the wrong circle by measuring the distance with steps. The rare and hilarious incident set social media on fire.
You won’t see this very often – a hold up in play after the umpires noticed that the 30 yard circle markers had been placed incorrectly #PAKvNZ #cricket pic.twitter.com/NwwYsUwVBe
— Saj Sadiq (@SajSadiqCricket) April 29, 2023
A video of this incident started becoming increasingly viral on social media and Pakistan cricket had to go through an embarrassing moment. Social media users trolled PCB a lot for this. After one over, the match was stopped for about 6 minutes. Pakistan won the toss and decided to field against the Black Caps and New Zealand scored 336 runs in 50 overs.
For New Zealand, Dirrell Mitchell played an inning of 129 runs off 119 balls. Wicketkeeper captain Tom Latham scored 98 runs off 85 balls. Young Chad Boyce also played a half-century and took his team’s score beyond 300. To win this match, Pakistan will have to score 337 runs in 50 overs. Captain Babar Azam got out after scoring 65 runs. Whereas, opener Fakar Zaman is playing by scoring a century.
