Delhi Capitals might have won a close game against Sunrisers Hyderabad earlier this week in IPL 2021, but it could have gone completely wrong for them due to a loophole in the laws.

Warner running one short meant that Delhi were already chasing a target one run fewer than they should have been. But against a wily Rashid Khan, they still needed all six balls to get past the target, squeezing in a run off the final ball when the scores were level after an lbw appeal was turned down by the umpire.

SRH had taken a review the previous ball and did not have any left for this delivery, but it wouldn’t have mattered as the ball looked to have pitched outside leg-stump – though we don’t know this for certain as ball tracking was never shown.

However, let’s however replay the events of the final delivery. Rashid Khan turns a googly from outside leg into Dhawan’s pad and the batsmen take off for a single even as the umpire’s turn down Sunrisers Hyderabad’s appeal for lbw.

Hold on here. What if the umpire’s had actually given Dhawan out? Of course, Dhawan would have reviewed the call and the decision would likely have been overturned. But they wouldn’t have been awarded the run they actually ran, as according to current laws, the ball is deemed to be dead when a review is taken.

Clause 3.7 of Appendix D of the ICC playing conditions, which deal with DRS, explains why.

“If following a Player Review request, an original decision of ‘Out’ is changed to ‘Not Out’, then the ball is still deemed to have become dead when the original decision was made,” it states. “The batting side, while benefiting from the reversal of the dismissal, shall not benefit from any runs that may subsequently have accrued from the delivery had the on-field umpire originally.”

Based on this, we would have seen another Super Over had Dhawan been given out and reviewed the decision to overturn the call even though the batsmen ran the single.

The law hasn’t been changed perhaps because the fielding side – arguably understandably – relaxes once the umpire gives the batsman out and so it makes sense to deem the ball as dead when the original decision was made.

But, a solution that wouldn’t need a change in these conditions is for the umpire to wait until the ball is dead before making his decision. That way, the fielding side isn’t interrupted by the decision and the batting side won’t be denied runs in case they manage to overturn a decision against them.

In Delhi’s case, they would have had to play a second Super Over for no fault of theirs if indeed Dhawan was given out. BCCI had made a few updates to the IPL 2021 playing conditions before the season including those for soft signals. This could be one that needs a bit of tweak. Maybe then the ICC would follow suit.

 

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