Last night’s IPL clash between Sunrisers Hyderabad and Chennai Super Kings was not a match that you will remember for a long time. It was an average scoring match which SRH eventually won quite comfortably. But one incident particularly caught our attention, while CSK were batting in the first innings.
It was the 19th over of the innings and Ravindra Jadeja was on strike. Bhuvaneswar Kumar bowled a near-perfect yorker to him which Jadeja struck back towards the bowler. Bhuvi collected the ball and threw it straight away aiming at the stumps as Jadeja was way outside the crease. However, Jadeja was struck by the throw as he tried to return to the crease. This immediately brought back images in my mind of the dismissals of Inzamam-Ul-Haq and Ben Stokes due to ‘obstruction of the field’.
. I thought Jadeja would certainly return to the pavilion after this incident. SRH’s Heinrich Klaasen also looked like signaling that he might be obstructing the field. The umpires also seemed to have a discussion regarding this incident. But seconds passed, and I saw Bhuvi bowl another ball to Jadeja. I was confused and then it struck me that SRH captain Pat Cummins and the bowler Bhuvi had decided not to appeal for Jadeja’s wicket.
That left me with divided opinions, and at the innings break, I saw a tweet by former Indian cricketer Mohammad Kaif which somewhat asked the questions I had in my mind.
Jadeja was batting at 25 off 20 at that point and remained unbeaten on 31 off 23.
Yes, Australian cricketers are known for their presence of mind in cleverly using cricket rules to their advantage. Also, Cummins has been sort of a villain figure after leading Australia to 2 ICC Championship victories against India in the past year.
However, in my perspective since Jadeja couldn’t see the ball while he was trying to get back to the crease, Cummins and Bhuvi decided not to make a big fuss about it. They must have thought it was unintentional from Jadeja. This act has also been lauded by cricket fans for showing true sportsman spirit.
But it also makes me curious, if the context of the game would have been different, and the stakes would have been higher, would Cummins have resorted to the same course of actions?