Buttler stumped by use of odd rule
ENGLAND captain Jos Buttler is concerned the T20 World Cup could be decided by unique rules after India benefited from a highly contentious call to sneak past Pakistan in an epic tussle at the MCG on Sunday.
Virat Kohli’s heroics with the bat helped India beat their fierce rivals on the final ball but it came with plenty of help in the last over.
The Indian megastar whacked a six off a full delivery that was deemed to be above the waist, which gave him a free hit.
The bowler, Mohammad Nawaz, hit the stumps with the subsequent delivery, but the ball then rolled towards the boundary, which gave the batters enough time to scamper home for three byes.
It’s a quirk of the rules that has divided cricket fans, with some saying the ball should be dead if it hits the stumps, while others say the bowler deserves to be punished for the no-ball.
Buttler is worried that something as bizarre as that could decide a finals match later in the tournament.
England was to play Ireland at the MCG on Wednesday ahead of a blockbuster clash with the Aussies at the same venue on Friday that could decide who qualifies for the semifinals.
As the stakes get higher, the players want clarity when it comes to rarely seen decisions that can decide matches.
“I think whether all of those things can be cleaned up a little bit would be beneficial,” Buttler said. “But where that ball goes off the stumps, as we saw, India managed to score three runs off that ball …
“For them, they’d obviously be like, ‘yep, that’s a perfect rule’, but for Pakistan, it obviously hurts them.”