A potentially sensitive situation in the locker room was avoided when R. Ashwin, a passionate champion of expelling batters if they got out of the crease at the non-forward end, released the offender with a furious glare. While throwing the third over of the Royal Challengers chase in Dubai, Ashwin paused before delivering what would have been the fourth delivery and performed his action without dropping the ball with Aaron Finch well out of the fold.
Ashwin, captain of the Kings XI Punjab last season, had been left without Jos Buttler of the Rajasthan Royals in similar circumstances, sparking a cricket-minded family debate about the layoff that is within the law and yet receives criticism from some, among them. is Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting.
Finch, at 12 when the incident occurred, had ventured well out of the box before the ball was thrown with his eyes on teammate Devdutt Padikkal. Ashwin, having caught Finch a few steps down the field, offered a wry smile. Referee Nitin Menon alerted Finch to this and the cameras immediately moved towards the Capitals dugout to show Ponting, who was also smiling. Ponting had publicly disagreed with Ashwin’s position on this type of firing even before this IPL began.
Ashwin had been tweeting on the subject before the season began, suggesting that bowlers get a “free ball” if non-strikers are found to backtrack too far. Ponting, in turn, had said that he would have a “tough conversation” with the spinner on the matter upon arriving in the United Arab Emirates.
Ponting had said in a podcast: grade cricketer, in August: “Look, he’s an excellent bowler and he’s done a great job at IPL for a long period of time, but I have to admit I saw him last season. [Ashwin running out Buttler], as soon as it happened and he did that, I sat our guys down and said ‘look, I know he did it, there will be others around the tournament who will think about getting it right, but that’s not going to be the way we play our cricket, we won’t. ‘
“So it’s going to be a conversation and it’s going to be a difficult conversation that I will have to have with him, but I’m pretty sure he’s going to take it seriously. I think even him, looking back now, he probably says he was within the rules and he is right to do so, but this is not in the spirit of the game, not in the way I want, at least with the capitals of Delhi anyway. “
That firing of Buttler led to a major controversy with the MCC calling for Ashwin’s hiatus before speaking out against the spirit of cricket. By the way, Ponting is on the MCC World Cricket Committee. He has been the coach of the Capitals since 2018, and Ashwin joined the franchise between the 2019 and 2020 seasons.
Ashwin had said after Buttler’s firing that his actions were “instinctive” but noted that he had stayed within the laws of the game.
“There are ways to prevent hitters from cheating like this,” Ponting said on the podcast. “If the pitcher stopped and the batter was a foot away, for example, just penalize him for a few runs or something. Do that and they won’t do it again. You only have to do it once. At the start of a tournament and then all the players see it, and I guarantee that from then on the players won’t lose ground. “
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