‘Nitin, it’s not fair man’ – Heated debate between Ashwin and umpire Nitin Menon hogs limelight

With the pitch staying low and the action increasingly going against India, the focus slowly shifted to Ashwin and his odd run up resembling that of a left-arm orthodox spinner. Ashwin came in from around the wicket, going against a usual off-spinner’s angle and then following up  through past the non-striker.

Nitin Menon seemed pretty upset with Ashwin’s angle of follow through and had a lengthy discussion with the off-spinner first and then Ajinkya Rahane about it. 

Replays showed Ashwin wasn’t really stepping onto the danger area as was initially suspected by the commentators on air.

“Nitin, it’s not fair man. You tell me what i am doing wrong,” Ashwin asked in between, evidently audible via the stump mics.

Umpire Menon, who had an uncharacteristically bad game in terms of decision-making, was having it no other way although. A few suggestions indicated that the umpire was worried about his view and the non-striker’s aim to run being stalled by Ashwin moving across the stumps as his follow through.

Either way, social media was rife with reactions post the incident and a possible flare up between Ashwin and Nitin Menon.

Ashwin seemed quite pumped up since the morning session, using his angles cleverly to keep the batters quiet and he appeared to be really distracted by Nitin Menon’s instruction to not run across the stumps.