The Shaded Bricks - 5 Unknown Laws of Cricket

The Shaded Bricks – 5 Unknown Laws of Cricket: Cricket, as the game goes, is a part of something at ease called entertainment. But since everything, by itself is bound by the barriers of rules and regulations, the game of Cricket is no exception to such universal facts. In fact, there is a Law book framed particularly for the purpose by the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) since its formation back in 1787. According to the Law book, there stands to be 42 laws in Cricket which are grouped under varied categories which includes laws regarding the Players and Officials, Equipment and laying out the pitch, Structure of the game, Scoring and winning, Mechanics of Dismissal, Ways to get out and finally two laws for the Fielders. These laws ensure the swift play of the game without spoiling the ecstatic spirit of the game. But, when it comes to laws, most of us, even the most knowledgeable of the Cricket fans think to know it all, but actually we don’t. So, to add flavour to this discussion, let us hover through five of the unknown or rather unpopular laws of the game. 1. Lost Ball: Image for representation purpose only. (Photo Source: Twitter) It might seem to be an affair in street cricket but the rule book of Cricket has mentions for the same in Law 20. It states that if, during play, the ball is lost, or is unable to be recovered, the fielding side can call a “Lost ball”. The law states: If a ball in play is lost or cannot be recovered, the fielding side can call “lost ball”. The batting side keeps any penalty runs (such as no-balls and wides) and scores the higher of six runs and the number of runs actually run. 2. Handling the Ball: The Law 33 of the Rule Book explains this. This law states, If a batsman wilfully handles the ball with a hand that is not touching the bat without the consent of the opposition, he is out. To explain it further, let us consider a situation. Suppose if a bowler bowls a ball and the batsman somehow plays it with the bat or with the pad. If the ball then deflects towards the wicket and the batsman immediately puts his hand to obstruct the ball, he might well according to the law, should be given OUT. An instance of this happened in 2001 during England’s tour to India. In the third test, from a delivery of Sarandeep Singh, Michael Vaughn obstructed the path of the ball and handed it and was adjudged out due to “handling the ball”. The wicket, however, does not get credited to the bowler for this. 3. Forfeiture: Hansie Cronje won 99 matches out of 138, a percentage of 73% wins. (Photo Source: Laurence Griffiths / AllSport UK Ltd) There is a provision in the Law 14 which vividly explains of the fact that a batting captain can forfeit the entire innings without batting a single delivery. Literally, this did happen in international Cricket. In a test match between South Africa and England in January, 2000, South Africa were poised at around 155 for the loss of 6 wickets in the first day when rain sneaked in. South Africa had already won the series 2-0 and it was the third test of the series. Rain washed out the entire of the next three days of the test and it called for an imminent draw. But, the then captain of South Africa, Hansie Cronje had something different in mind. He made a pact with the English captain, Nasser Hussain that South Africa would declare their innings after reaching around 250 and England and South Africa would forfeit one of their innings and England would have to chase it in the fourth innings. The English team agreed to it and ultimately they won the match by 2 wickets, chasing 251 runs after forfeiting their first innings which was followed by the forfeiture of the second innings of South Africa. 4. Mankading: Well, this is a kind of dismissal, quite unheard of. Before getting onto the naming justification for this dismissal, let us conceptualize about it. Suppose, if a bowler while in the run up, just prior to bowling his delivery, sees the non-striker stepped out of the popping crease, the bowler has full rights to dislodge the bails at the non-striker’s end and the non-striker will be declared run out if he is found out of the crease. Also, even the ball wasn’t being bowled, the ball shall not be considered as a dead ball. The name is such because of the fact that it was Vinoo Mankad who first enforced such a dismissal while bowling. He ran out Bill Brown in 1947. The ICC does provide provisions to the bowler to induct this dismissal while the bowler is on his delivery stride and is about to release the ball. Later, in the 90s, Kapil Dev dismissed Peter Kirsten in the similar manner after warning him for a number of times. This happens to be controversial till date. 5. Restrictions on Injured Fielder: Umesh Yadav. (Photo Source: Getty Images) There are a number of rules for a player while leaving the field. First of all, the player must take the permission of the umpire for leaving. If the player happens to be out of the field for a span of over 15 minutes, he shall not be allowed to bowl for the exact length of the time for which he was out. If it happens to be the case that the player, while he was off the field, the bowling of his respective team concluded, then he shall not be allowed to bat for the exact amount of time from the commencement of the innings. Things might look to be tricky. Let us make it simple by providing an example. In the third test between India and South Africa in January, 2007, Sachin Tendulkar was out of the field for eighteen minutes at the end of the first innings of South African batting. Just after the innings concluded, in the second innings of the Indian batting, the two opening batsmen were dismissed early and Sachin could not come into bat at number 4 as eighteen minutes to the Indian innings had not passed since its commencement. Sourav Ganguly came into bat at number 4. Also, there are further restrictions about this. If a player, who earlier left the field fail to inform the umpire about his return to the field, and if it happens that the fielder fields a ball, the umpire shall offer 5 penalty runs to the batting team. Quick Link : 30 Mind Boggling Cricket Facts You Did Not Know

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The Shaded Bricks - 5 Unknown Laws of Cricket

2. Handling the Ball:

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