IPL 2019: Declare a ball dead if it fails to dislodge bails after hitting stumps, says Ajinkya Rahane

Ajinkya Rahane and his Rajasthan Royals (RR) teammates were once again on the receiving end after the zinger bails did not fall down during their game against Kolkata Knight Riders (KKR) in Jaipur on Sunday. The Royals had already paid a big price this season due to the stubbornness of the bail when they did not come off against Chennai Super last week. MS Dhoni had got away with it, after inside-edging a Jofra Archer delivery that rolled on to the stumps. Dhoni was on zero and went on to make a match-winning 75* off 46 balls.

The Royals suffered a similar fate against the Knight Riders with Chris Lynn getting a similar reprieve. In the fourth over of Knight Riders’ chase, Dhawal Kulkarni breached Lynn’s defence and the ball clipped the leg stump off the inside edge. The zing bails lit up but did not come off while the ball ricocheted to the fine-leg fence to add salt to Royals’ woes. Lynn was batting on just 13 at that time and went on to score a fifty as Knight Riders inflicted a heavy defeat on the Royals.

Asked to bat first, the Royals could only manage to post 139 despite losing only three wickets.  In reply, Sunil Narine and Lynn came out all guns blazing and scored 65 runs in the powerplay. The two went on to add 91 runs for the first wicket as Knight Riders chased down the total with 8 wickets in hands and 37 balls remaining.

After the game, Ajinkya Rahane said that it would be a better option if the umpire declares a ball dead if it hits the stumps but fails to dislodge the bails. The Royals skipper said that some credit should also be given to the bowlers in such a scenario by declaring the ball dead.

“The rules are rules. Having said that, maybe the boundary could have not been counted. I told the umpire, at least don’t declare it a boundary,” Rahane told reporters at the post-match press conference.

“The T20 game is already heavily tilted in the favour of batsmen, and in such a situation, a ball can maybe be declared a dead ball. That was my conversation with the umpire,” he added.

No need for panic:

The defeat, meanwhile, has further dented Royals’ chances of making it to the playoffs. The inaugural winners of the league are languishing at the seventh position in the points table after managing just one win from their first five games. However, Ajinkya Rahane feels that there is still no need to press the panic button as he pointed out the positives from the close defeats this season.

“I think there’s no need for us to panic yet. Out of the five matches that we played, we lost badly in just one game. We played well in our last four matches, out of which we could have won three,” he said.

“When you’re losing, you can risk overthinking. But when you’re winning, you don’t dwell on things that much. It’s not too late for us. If we can improve and apply ourselves, the desired results will surely follow,” he added.

[interaction id=”5cab77e3150ec7e7250ee569″]

Get the latest Cricket News and updates, Match Predictions, Fantasy Cricket Tips and lots more on CricTracker.com.