Umpire talks to MS Dhoni after Rayudu leaves his crease too early

The game between the Chennai Super Kings (CSK) and the Kings XI Punjab (KXIP) was filled with strange incidents. While the bails didn’t come off the groove despite the ball hitting the stumps which reprieved the batsman, KL Rahul and Sarfaraz Khan’s approach was questionable in the chase which cost the visitors the game. There was one more incident which grabbed everyone’s eyeballs during the first innings of the game.

During one of the overs when Ambati Rayudu and MS Dhoni were batting, the umpire Rod Tucker was seen talking to the CSK skipper and warned him about something. The incident took place in the last over the innings when Mohammed Shami was bowling. Rayudu was at the non-strikers’ end and was backing up too far in order to take an extra run.

The on-field umpires spotted the same and to avoid a possible ‘mankading’ Rod Tucker was quick to contact the CSK skipper Dhoni and tell him about the same. Ambati Rayudu wasn’t happy with the same and though only one delivery was left after that, the was chaos in between for a couple of minutes.

The replays also clearly showed that the batsman was backing up too much and was correctly warned by the umpires to avoid any controversy at the crucial stage of the match.

Ashwin mankading keeping umpires on their toes

The incident proves that the umpires have been made aware after the controversial dismissal of Jos Buttler earlier in the tournament. In the game against Rajasthan Royals, Ravi Ashwin had mankaded Buttler for backing up and a lot was said after the match regarding the spirit of the game. Rather it was a legal dismissal but the outburst after the mankading was huge.

Eventually, the sense prevailed in the end as the umpires took initiative to avoid any such thing again and the officials should be lauded for their step.

Ambati Rayudu, who began his innings after R Ashwin's spell ended, is an egregious offender when it comes to leaving his crease early at non-striker's end. No prizes for guessing who ran the most twos from the non-striker's end during the CSK innings. #mankadidate pic.twitter.com/n8uhfP6azb

— Peter Della Penna (@PeterDellaPenna) April 6, 2019

Here are some of the instances when Rayudu backed up: