Brevis wasn't out, but 'lack of awareness' cost him his wicket

On an evening where the contest ebbed and flowed all the way through, there was also a contentious decision, which led to a long argument in the middle at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bengaluru.

The incident took place on the third ball of the 17th over of the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) chase of 214 against Royal Challengers Bengaluru (RCB). Lungi Ngidi bowled a knee-high full toss on middle and leg stump. Dewald Brevis missed, and was hit on the pad. The umpire's finger went up in a jiffy. As per the rules, the ball became dead at that point, and the 15-second timer kicked off.

However, Brevis and his partner Ravindra Jadeja, seemingly unsure of what was happening, continued running the single, and the fielder fired in a direct hit at the non-striker's end from the point region. After a bit, Brevis chatted with Jadeja and asked for a review only to be told that the 15-second time limit had elapsed.

It led to an argument with Jadeja and Brevis on one side and the on-field umpires Nitin Menon and Mohit Krishnadas on the other. Eventually, a disgruntled Brevis had to walk back for a first-ball duck. To add to CSK's misery, replays confirmed that Ngidi's delivery was comfortably sliding down leg and Brevis would have been saved had he taken the review on time.

"Yeah, it was a big moment," Stephen Fleming, the CSK coach said after the game. "In talking to Jaddu [Jadeja] and Brevis, there was a lot going on with running straight away. I think they saw the ball ricochet and actually went to the boundary for four. And lost in that was whether Brevis took the review in time. I don't know the answer to that. He wasn't sure, given that they were running at the time.

"As soon as you're given out, I understand the timer starts. There was a fair bit eaten up with the play still being completed, and whether they just ran out of time... in the umpire's view, it did. The other part about it, because he was given out, we wouldn't have got the runs. While we would have maintained the wicket, it certainly wouldn't have given us the five runs, which would have been nice.

"But it's a big moment in a big game. There was twists and turns all the way through."

According to the IPL 2025 playing conditions, "The total time elapsed between the ball becoming dead and the review request being made shall be no more than 15 seconds. If the on-field umpires believe that a request has not been made within the 15-second time limit, they shall decline the request for a player review."

ESPNcricinfo's match experts felt that it was a case of "lack of awareness" on Brevis and Jadeja's part.

"Why are you saving your reviews? Do you cash those in? Do you get some money at the end of the game?" Danny Morrison said on ESPNcricinfo's Time Out show, while suggesting that it was a "mistake" from Brevis and Jadeja to not go for the review right away.

Piyush Chawla had a similar view, especially with Brevis being an in-form batter.

"You don't need to discuss. Three-and-a-half overs left, two reviews remaining, you could have gone for the review straightaway," he said. "When you are batting, with the angles, as a batter you also know it might slide [down the leg side] because of the rule sometimes when it hits directly onto your pads, from there they take it straight with the tracker."

Brevis had scores of 42 and 32 in two innings coming into the game. When he fell, CSK required 42 off 21 balls, but they fell short by two runs in a tense finish.