The Laws of the game are of
great importance ~ you might debate endlessly on why they are there ~ but once
they are in place, one can do nothing but to abide by them. At Mohali, in the end, it was
a comfortable win for India chasing 258; they lost only 5 wickets and Raina
completed the victory remaining unbeaten on 89, making his 3rd fifty in as many
innings. Now the chill of Dharamsala, in
the foothills of Himalayas may not offer any heat.
One can sympathise with Alastair Cook if he felt that
Steven Finn's knee did them in. But the reaction of Cook and his argument with
umpire Steve Davis smacked of arrogance or of ignorance of law ~ the latter
cannot be true as they have had previous experience of the same law that
was invoked Law 23. What would have happened, had Raina scored a four of that ball - still it would have been a dead ball.....
Earlier, India persisted
with ever failing Rohit Sharma, who came good at last. Gambhir was did in by a dubious decision. Kohli and Yuvraj followed, before Dhoni had a
good partnership with Raina. In the
morning, Bhuvanesh bowled a tight spell; England had a good 2nd wicket
partnership; but their down slide came when Cook got out in the 32nd over. Cook was trapped by Ashwin who also got rid
of Morgan; Jadeja chipped in with another 3 and
some late hitting by Root took them to 257, which proved not enough in
the end.
After Dhoni got out to an
ordinary ball, came the batting powerplay… over no. 36 – India 178/5 needing 80
more… Finn was the bowler, Raina launched into a drive, edged, well taken at
first slip by England captain ~ Steve Davis declared a ‘dead ball’ ~ Cook ran
towards the Umpire and started arguing furiously… well, rule is a rule and
there was nothing Umpire could do about.
Dead ball is a phenomenon
in many ball sports in which the ball is deemed temporarily not playable, and
no movement may be made with it or the players from their respective positions
of significance. In Cricket, Law 23
mentions the situation when the ball is dead.
Law 23. 1. Ball is dead
(a) The ball becomes dead
when
(i) it is finally settled
in the hands of the wicket-keeper or of the bowler.
(ii) a boundary is scored.
(iii) a batsman is
dismissed. The ball will be deemed to be dead from the instant of the incident
causing the dismissal.
(iv) whether played or not
it becomes trapped between the bat and person of a batsman or between items of
his clothing or equipment.
(v) whether played or not
it lodges in the clothing or equipment of a batsman or the clothing of an
umpire.
(vi) it lodges in a
protective helmet worn by a fielder……………………
there is more….
This is not the first time such
accident occurred on Cricket field and not the first time for England – Finn
too….. In Aug 2012, when England played
South Africa, Umpire Steve Davis repeatedly called "dead ball" after
Finn had continued a habit, which has previously gone unpunished, of
occasionally dislodging the bails with his knee as he delivered the ball. Smith, edged to Strauss only to be called a
dead ball as Finn had dislodged the bails.
According to Law 23.4(b) Umpire will call it a dead ball,
when the bowler dislodges a bail, or the bails are dislodged by any other
reason, before the batsman gets an opportunity to play the ball. The Umpire was
perfectly right and the gesture and reaction of English players and their
captain was totally unwarranted ~ but such unsporting behaviour from Cook or
for that matter English team is not new nor happening for the first time….
With regards – S.
Sampathkumar.
23rd Jan 2013.
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