Dinesh Karthik was once happy to play peacemaker after Tim Southee, R Ashwin and Eoin Morgan got into a war of words
Tuesday’s first IPL game between the Delhi Capitals and the Kolkata Knight Riders produced a momentary argument involving Tim Southee, Eoin Morgan and R Ashwin, which required intervention from the KKR wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik, who said he was once happy to have played peacemaker.
The argument came approximately in the last over of the Capitals innings, after Ashwin had been dismissed by Southee off its first ball. The prelude, Karthik explained after the game, had come off the final ball of the preceding over, when the Capitals had snuck in an overthrow after a throw from point had deflected off Rishabh Pant at the non-striker’s end.
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WATCH – Rishabh Pant swats and Dinesh Karthik takes a tumble
“Rahul Tripathi threw the ball, it hit Rishabh Pant, and then ricocheted,” Karthik said. “And Ashwin called for it and they started to run. I don’t believe Morgan appreciates that. I think he is somebody who, when the ball hits the batsman or the bat, he expects them not to run in the spirit of cricket.
“Again, it is a very grey area, it is a very interesting topic. I have my own opinion on it but in this day and age I will just say I’m happy I played peacemaker and things have come to a good standstill at the moment.”
There isn’t any clause in the playing conditions that stops a team from running overthrows off of deflections off the stumps, the batters, or their equipment; a applicable clause to have a look at is clause 37.2 in the IPL playing conditions, which directly deals with exceptions with regards to obstructing the field, but provides some hints approximately the legality of taking a run off a deflection. The clause says that a batter isn’t out obstructing the field whether the “obstruction or distraction is accidental, or […] so as to steer clear of injury”.
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In Tuesday’s case, there was once nothing to propose Pant deflected the ball deliberately. It is, then again, common to see batters not taking additional runs when the ball deflects off them – a verdict call not based on law.
After Southee dismissed Ashwin off the next ball, he exchanged words with Ashwin, before Morgan chipped in as the batter made his as far back as the dugout. Karthik was once seen getting in between the two parties before Ashwin turned around and walked out. Pant, who was once at the centre of the incident, said he didn’t see anything fallacious with the situation on the whole.
Dinesh Karthik and Rishabh Pant were a few of the players involved in the overthrow fracas BCCI
“I think it’s part and parcel of the game because both teams are striving to win the match, so some things are gonna happen. Whatever is good for the game,” he said. “I think that was once in the spirit of the game, nothing much, because at the end of the day Ash and Morgan are trying to win the game for their sides and there may also be some miscommunication in between.”
The culmination of this mini-contest came all the way through KKR’s chase, when Ashwin was once brought on to bowl his final over to Morgan and had him caught at slip for a second-ball duck which he celebrated animatedly. But KKR’s lower-middle order saw them through a nervous phase to seal victory by three wickets.
Morgan, accidentally, was once England’s captain when they were the beneficiaries of the most renowned by accident deflected throw in cricket history. In the final over of the 2019 World Cup last, the ball hit Ben Stokes’ bat as he dived to make his ground, and ran absent to the boundary, taking the question of if or not to take advantage of the deflection entirely out of the batting team’s hands.
Varun Shetty is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo