The US team.
Credit: X/@T20WorldCup
New York: Things were getting tenser than anticipated at the Nassau County stadium post-noon on a sunny Wednesday.
India were playing against the United States of America for the first time, and they were now in need of 35 runs from 30 balls in pursuit of 111. They had the wickets but they were running out of overs.
Typically, in this format, anyone with even marginal cricket knowledge would say the team chasing will get there comfortably. On this wicket, though, you have to suspend what you know and accept what comes your way.
The pitch wasn’t getting any easier and the bowling wasn’t going to go bad suddenly, but the US’ inability to internalise a rule set by the International Cricket Council to quicken the game allowed India to gain five penalty runs when the chasers were struggling to get them.
“Suddenly, I saw they had reduced five runs. I was wondering what that’s about because they don’t inform us (the batting side),” said Shivam Dube after the match.
Under clause 41.9 of the revised men’s ODI and T20I playing conditions, which deals with provisions against time wasting by the fielding side (it can’t take more than a minute between overs), the stop clock has been added under sub-clause 41.9.4. The clock debuted on a trial basis during men’s ODIs and T20Is from December 2023 and was mandated for all white-ball matches since the T20 World Cup.
The umpires had warned the US skipper, Aaron Jones, twice for violating the stop-clock rule but after the third instance of the offence, the umpire called for the five penalty runs.