IPL
2021 has been a great entertainer – so many varied results – tall scores being
chased, teams folding smaller targets –
choking closer to the end – some great innings, great catches, good bowling
performances – a mixed bag indeed. You would
have observed that the games are now played
at neutral venues within India for the first time – no team plays on
their home ground. Six cities — Chennai,
Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Kolkata — hosting the tournament. Chennai and Mumbai hosting the first leg from
April 9 to April 25, followed by Delhi and Ahmedabad from April 26 to May 8.
The third and final leg will be held in Bengaluru and Kolkata from May 9 to May
23 before the action moves to Ahmedabad for the play-offs, starting on May 25.
Riley
Meredith became the fifth-most expensive uncapped player signed in IPL auction
history on Thursday, when the Punjab Kings paid INR 8 crores. A 24-year-old
fast bowler from Tasmania, Meredith has long been talked up as a future
prospect for Australia - particularly by Shane Warne .. .. yesterday he bowled
fast and did rattle some. Devdutt
Padikkal [7 off 6 balls] carved Meredith for an audacious six over extra-cover
on the 2nd ball but Meredith sent his off-stump for a cartwheel. Clean Bowled ! – stumps flying !!
Ravi Bishnoi is
another revelation – took a sensational catch in the deep – in the early
stages, Bishnoi let go a fast spinning googly towards Rajat Patidar, who
completely miss read the ball as he went for a slog sweep. Replays showed that
the ball snuck under Patidar’s bat and brushed past the leg stump while going
into keeper Prabhsimran’s gloves. The keeper appealed and umpires had to refer
it to the third umpire. The replays also found that the ball had actually hit
the leg stump on its way to the keeper, but neither the lights came on, nor the
bails were disturbed.
WG Grace, with his
flowing beard and cricketing stature as huge as his enormous frame, has been
the subject matter for many a anecdotes – on a windy day, he was bowled as
bails were dislodged. He coolly turned
back, placed the bails back on stumps, remarking – there is a strong Westerly
wind ! – the Umpire reportedly responded, yes, Doctor, I hope it helps you on
your way back to the pavilion. But by strange rules of the game, a batsman is not declared
out even when the balls hits the stumps – but, if the bails are not
dislodged.
In
2019, the bad weather conditions at Old Trafford in Manchester forced the first
day’s play of the fourth Ashes Test to cut short. The wind and rain interrupted
the game on few occasions resulting in only 44 overs bowled on the opening day.
In the 32nd over of the Australian inning, objects like beach-ball and chips
packet gained access to the pitch due to strong winds. The powerful winds also
knocked off the bails, causing frustration and delay. So the Umpires decided that game would be
played without bails on the stumps!
Here are the
rules explained:
32.1 Out
Bowled
32.1.1 The
striker is out Bowled if his/her wicket is put down by a ball delivered by the
bowler, not being a No ball, even if it first touches the striker’s bat or
person.
29.1.1 The wicket is put down if a bail is
completely removed from the top of the stumps, or a stump is struck out of the
ground,
29.1.1.1 by
the ball,
29.1.1.2 by the striker’s bat if held or by any part of the bat that he/she is holding,
DRS has proved to a
boon for some batsman and some bowlers – while Captains struggle on when to use
their trump card. In 2017, it was a
howler – Bangladesh’s Soumya Sarkar took review after getting bowled during
Bangladesh’s first Test against Sri Lanka in Galle. The astonishing event
happened on the second ball of the fifth day with Sarkar batting on 53. He
failed to judge the line of a delivery from right-arm medium pacer Asela
Gunaratne as the ball clipped the top of his off stump.
Regular
Cricket views know it too well – in recent times, when the delivery or throw or
the keeper’s glouse hits the stumps – and when the bails goes off, they flash
aluminous red. They are not ordinary wooden bails but ‘zing bails’. Traditionally stumps and bails are made
from wood, but the new flashing wickets are made from a composite plastic,
which are embedded with LED lights. The use of flashing wickets in
international matches has been in vogue for more than 5 years now. A bail is only completely dislodged when
both spigots have separated from their stump grooves. A microprocessor in each
Zing detects when BOTH spigots have become dislodged from the stump grooves.
The Zing illuminates within 1/1000th of a second.
It would
appear watching pacers like Meredith, Jamieson, Pat Cummins, Jasprit Bumrah, Prasidh Krishna, Kagiso Rabada, and
some more are bowling so fast, that the bails could fall on their own with the
balls whizzhing past the stumps and perhaps there is no need to hit them even
!! ~ but factually they are not falling
even when getting hit is the moot Q .. In
the World cup, Adil Rashid was aghast when Quinton de Kock, tried reverse sweep
from outside leg - zing bails did not
come off, ball went for 4 ! Boult express to Karunaratne brushed the stumps,
zing bails did not come off. Mitchell
Starc had the same agony, Chris Gayle being the batsman, Mohammad Saifuddin survived
against Ben Stokes and David Warner dragged back a Bumrah delivery onto the
stumps, but the bails refused to budge.
The balls hit the base of leg stump courtesy a deflection off the boot, but
Warner could continue playing !
Yesterday it was a
great match offering wholesome entertainment.
The score card : Punjab Kings 179 for 5 (Rahul 91*, Gayle 46, Jamieson
2-32) beat Royal Challengers Bangalore 145 for 8 (Kohli 35, Brar 3-19, Bishnoi
2-17) by 34 runs - would never capture
the innate nuances of the game just as Ravi Bishnoi beating Patidar – nicking to
leg stump but bails not falling.
The first delivery that
Glenn Maxwell faced stunned him – the ball pitched near middle, danced, turned
and ended up hitting top of off stump. Both
the bails had fallen making commentators think whether keeper Prabhsimran had
any hand ? – Maxwell who was bamboozled stood his ground, was reluctant to walk
out – Umpires referred checking the cleanliness and were convinced at first
replay itself on ball hitting stumps. 10.2
that was a ripper from Harpreer Brar – who ?
A left-arm spinner
and a hard-hitting lower-order batter, Brar hails from Moga, a small city in
Punjab, which is also the hometown of Harmanpreet Kaur. He was
picked by Kings XI Punjab in the 2019 IPL auction for his base price of INR 20
lakh at the age of 23. Brar made is T20
debut in the 2019 IPL against the Delhi Capitals, when his captain R Ashwin
described him as a "mystery spinner" at the toss. Brar impressed with
an unbeaten 20 off 12, that included a six off a Kagiso Rabada bouncer, but was struck for a six first ball by Shikhar
Dhawan in a 17-run over, and he went on to play just one more game for a wicketless
five overs that season.
After losing four
of their first six IPL games this season, the Kings made three changes against
the Royal Challengers, and gave Brar his fourth IPL game. Brar first batted
with his captain KL Rahul to finish on an unbeaten 25 from 17 at No. 7 that
included 18 runs off five balls against Harshal Patel, this IPL's highest
wicket-taker, with the help of two sixes and a four, that took the Kings to a
challenging 179 for 5. More of his magic
was to come. After getting struck for a
6 by Virat Kohli – he bowled out Kohli and off the very next ball, had Glenn
Maxwell too bowled. In his
next and last over, he had de Villiers caught at extra cover for a fairytale
ending that left the chase at 69 for 4 from where the Royal Challengers never
recovered.
His first 11 overs
in the IPL starting from 2019 went for a wicketless 106 runs, and his next
seven balls didn't concede a single run while removing not one but three big
fish. It was nice to see Virat Kohli appreciating
Brar and greeting him after the match.
01.05.2021
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