Picture Credit: IPL/BCCI
The match no. 12 in Indian Premier League brought back nostalgia for the Yellow Army as Chennai Super Kings, just like the old days, put on a dominating performance in Mumbai. MS Dhoni-led side absolutely thumped Rajasthan Royals by 45 runs in a one-sided affair and moved to second position in the points table. However, the clocks were turned not only for CSK fans on Monday but a few Ravichandran Ashwin supporters and various other cricket experts as well. The whole debate of mankading and spirit of cricket started once again because of one incident.
What actually ignited the debate?
It was the last over of CSK's first innings with Shardul Thakur on strike. On the second delivery, RR pacer Mustafizur Rahman bowled a perfect yorker as the batsmen could only manage to sneak a single. Unfortunately, it was called no-ball by the third umpire and the replays were shown on the screen. While it was a no-ball and there were no issues with that, it was Dwayne Bravo's actions which got the whole attention.
It could be seen that the all-rounder had already got one yard ahead of the crease even before the ball was released, something which really angered commentator Harsha Bhogle. The 59-year-old said on-air, "Look where Bravo is. That is why I believe you're entirely within your rights - it should almost be mandatory in team meetings - to say, run him out. All this talk about not being in the spirit of the game is so much nonsense. He has taken a yard."
Watch the video here:
Bhogle went on to add that what's against the spirit of cricket is when you run less and claim a run. Former New Zealand cricketer, Simon Doull, also agreed with his co-commentator and said, "That picture we just showed, where Bravo was so far out of his crease and the no-ball was shown, is a great example of why he should be run out. The bowler is minimally over, yet he gets punished."
While the incident did not make much of a difference in the end as CSK won by a huge margin, it was enough to start the whole 'spirit of cricket' once again on Twitter. Various cricket journalists and former cricketers like Brad Hogg and Venkatesh Prasad also echoed their opinions on the issue.
Check out the tweets:
The experts also took a dig at Ricky Ponting, who had earlier stated that he would have a chat with Ashwin about the 'mankading' incident he had with Jos Buttler and won't allow him to do that again as it is against the spirit of cricket. With the issue out there once again, it will be really exciting to see if we see another similar case in days to come.