DUBAI: Islamabad United had to chase five more runs on Thursday in the PSL 2019 opener against Lahore Qalandars thanks to a goof up in the field.
A rare occurrence during the Lahore Qalandar innings earned the team five penalty points courtesy Luke Ronchi's discarded wicketkeeping gloves.
It happened during the fifth ball of the second over of Lahore innings. The English left-arm spinner Samit Patel's delivery landed in Sohail Akhtar's pads and was struck away scoring two runs.
However, there was a holdup shortly after as umpires Rashid Riaz and Richard Illingworth announced five additional runs for Lahore. This occurred, it seemed, because the wicketkeeper Ronchi had discarded one of his gloves.
The ball, coming from the deep square-leg region, hit the piece of equipment.
While the batsman was not dismissed, Lahore scored five more runs, an additional delivery and got to keep the two runs they had scored.
Why this happened is pretty simple.
According to the Law 28.2 that entails details on 'Fielding the ball', it's not legal if a fielder "discards a piece of clothing, equipment or any other object which subsequently makes contact with the ball". It isn't illegal, by the way, if the piece of equipment "has accidentally fallen from the fielder's person", as cited in 28.2.1.
Moreover, as per 28.2.1.A: "A fielder may field the ball with any part of his/her person, except as in 28.2.1.2. However, he/she will be deemed to have fielded the ball illegally if, while the ball is in play he/she willfully 28.2.1.1 uses anything other than part of his/her person to field the ball. 28.2.1.2 extends his/her clothing with his/her hands and uses this to field the ball."
According to 28.2.1.3, the ball will be rendered void if the fielder 'discards a piece of clothing, equipment or any other object which subsequently makes contact with the ball'.
Hence, as per 28.2.2 'it is not illegal fielding if the ball in play makes contact with a piece of clothing, equipment or any other object which has accidentally fallen from the fielder’s person.'
In such a case, 28.2.3 should be applied which states: "If a fielder illegally fields the ball, the ball shall immediately become dead and:
- The penalty for a No ball or a Wide shall stand.
- Any runs completed by the batsmen shall be credited to the batting side, together with the run in progress if the batsmen had already crossed at the instant of the offence.
- The ball shall not count as one of the over.
In addition the umpire shall
- Award 5 Penalty runs to the batting side.
- Inform the other umpire and the captain of the fielding side of the reason for this action.
- Inform the batsmen and, as soon as practicable, the captain of the batting side of what has occurred.
The umpires together shall report the occurrence as soon as possible after the match to the Executive of the offending side and to any Governing Body responsible for the match, who shall take such action as is considered appropriate against the captain, any other individuals concerned and, if appropriate, the team.