CWG 2022: Sehwag leads criticism of clock howler in IND vs AUS women's hockey semis

Former Indian cricketer Virender Sehwag took to his official Twitter handle on Saturday and criticised the massive clock howler that took place during the India vs Australia women’s hockey semi-final at the Commonwealth Games 2022. While the scores stood at 1-1 after the end of the match, the match went into a penalty shootout, which featured a controversial incident. As Australia went for their first shot, Indian captain and goalkeeper Savita Punia came up with a sensational save.

While the Indian squad thought they have gained an advantage, the umpire was heard conveying that Australia will retake the shot as the clock had not started during the first hit. This left the Indian squad in a state of shock as the clock howler affected their state of mind and they went on to lose the match 0-3 in the shootout. Meanwhile, revealing his thoughts about the incident, former Team India batter Sehwag rued at the fact that such incidents can take place even in the CWG.

The former Indian opener termed the incident as biasedness against the Indian team and pointed out similar incident took place in cricket too. However, Sehwag added that this stopped happening in cricket after Team India became a superpower in the sport. He further said that all clocks will start on time after India becomes a superpower in hockey in the near future.

“Penalty miss hua Australia se and the Umpire says, Sorry Clock start nahi hua. Such biasedness used to happen in cricket as well earlier till we became a superpower, Hockey mein bhi hum jald banenge and all clocks will start on time. Proud of our girls,” the 43-year-old former cricketer tweeted.

Here's how netizens are reacting 

Alongside the reaction from Sehwag, sporting fans from India also termed the clock howler as biasedness and responded to it with criticism. A sports fan tweeted saying, “Clock had not started” #hockey #INDvsAUS #Cheating It's matter of sec, Give One Gold to Refree, 2nd Gold to second Refree, 3rd one to TV umpire, For their Joker decision in #Hockey #CWG2022 #CommonwealthGames2022 (sic)”. At the same time, another fan said, “*Remove Archery and Shooting where Indians dominate *Make utterly biased decisions against Indians in boxing and Squash *Let Aussies retake a missed penalty stroke, coz the "clock didn't start". (sic)"