'Just Like a Tracer Bullet': Umpire Narrowly Escapes Rovman Powell's Powerful Straight Drive vs SRH

On-field umpire Yeshwant Barde’s super reflexes during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2024 match between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Rajasthan Royals have caught everyone’s attention. The match official dodged at the right time to save himself from a Rovman Powel shot that went straight down the ground for a boundary.

It was the 17th over when Powell smashed a Marco Jansen delivery straight down the ground for four runs. As the ball flew past the bowler, Barde quickly ducked the ball to escape from a serious injury.

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The video of the incident was shared on IPL’s official account which shows the reflexes of the umpire.

“It was just like a tracer bullet, it was travelling towards me I could see,” Barde said in the video.

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Barde encountered a similar incident on March 23 when the Sunrisers were playing Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR). Batter Rahul Tripathi smashed Suyash Sharma straight down the ground but the ball hit the umpire after getting deflected off the bowler’s hand. Barde could not move away in time and was hit on the shin.

SRH beat RR by 1 Run

Bhuvneshwar Kumar did the star turn with a sensational final over as Sunrisers Hyderabad pulled off a heist, stunning Rajasthan Royals by just one run in a last-ball thriller to keep their IPL playoff hopes alive.

Head forged a 96-run stand off 57 balls for the third wicket with Nitish, who also added another 70 off 32 balls with Klassen to take SRH across the 200-mark for the fifth time this season.

In reply, youngsters Yashasvi Jaiswal (67) and Riyan Parag (77) came up with counterattacking fifties on the way to a massive 134-run partnership to lay the foundation of the run-chase.

But once the duo was back in the hut, Shimron Hetmyar (13) hit a four and a six as it seemed like a regulation chase but T Natarajan got rid of Hetmyar, who perished at long-on and then skipper Pat Cummins removed Dhruv Jurel, who was caught at deep square leg in the 19th over.

Needing two to win off the last delivery, Bhuvneshwar (3/41) trapped Rovman Powell (27) with a full toss to leave RR stranded at 200 for seven while chasing a target of 202.

Following the win, SRH snapped their two-game losing streak and moved to the fourth spot with 12 points, the same as Kolkata Knight Riders, and Lucknow Super Giants, while RR stayed at the top with 16 points.

(With Agency Inputs)