A front-foot no-ball check on Mustafizur Rahman in IPL 2021 has prompted veteran Indian commentator Harsha Bhogle to call for a drastic attitude change towards Mankad dismissals.
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In the final over of Chennai Super Kings’ (CSK) innings against Rajasthan Royals, a no-ball was called by the television umpire on Mustafizur. The replay of Mustafizur’s overstep also showed the non-striker, Dwayne Bravo, to be well out of his crease.
The moment prompted Bhogle to voice his frustration at the prevailing attitude towards Mankads – running batsmen out at the non-striker’s end – that often sees fielding sides reluctant to punish batsmen who wander out of their ground.
On commentary, Bhogle argued: “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.”
Ravichandran Ashwin’s running out of Jos Buttler at the non-striker’s end during an IPL game in 2019 was hotly contested at the time with current and former players seemingly split on the issue. During the 2020 tournament, Ashwin opted against running out Aaron Finch in similar fashion.
