Pakistan suffer heavy ‘penalty’ in thumping loss to India in Women’s World T20

Pakistan registered their highest-ever Twenty20 International total during the match against arch-rivals India in the Women’s World T20 encounter in Providence, Guyana. However, that was not enough to give them victory as Mithali Raj’s aggressive 16^th fifty helped India register their second straight win of the tournament.

However, the match was tinged with controversy in the Pakistan innings and it all started in the 18^th over bowled by offspinner Deepti Sharma. On the first ball, Bismah Maroof cut a short ball to point and set off for a quick single. However, the umpires came together and after conferring, they penalised Pakistan five runs for running onto the danger area of the wicket. Umpire Sue Redfern had apparently warned the batters twice before signaling the penalty.

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In addition, the run was disallowed but the umpires made a mistake of not getting Maroof back on strike, with Nida Dar taking a single off the next ball.

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The incident was repeated again in the final ball of the innings. Poonam Yadav was the bowler and Sidra Nawaz got a leading edge that rolled to point and Pakistan pinched a single. However, Nawaz had once again trod on the danger area of the pitch and umpire Redfern penalised Pakistan five runs yet again. This meant that before India started the chase, they had already accumulated 10 runs on the board.

What does the law say?

The 10 penalty runs was a big talking point in the match. However, the umpires knew the rules and enforced it. Under the ICC playing conditions, rule 41.14.3 states that if there is any further instance of avoidable damage to the pitch by any batsman in that innings, the umpire seeing the contravention shall, when the ball is dead, inform the other umpire of the occurrence.

The bowler’s end umpire shall award five Penalty runs to the fielding side and also award any other 5-run Penalty that is applicable. The umpires will inform the captain of the fielding side and, as soon as practicable, the captain of the batting side of the reason for this action. The umpires together shall report the occurrence as soon as possible after the match to the Executive of the offending side and to any Governing Body responsible for the match, who shall take such action as is considered appropriate against the captain, any other individuals concerned and, if appropriate, the team.

Pakistan’s fault

Speaking after the loss, Pakistan skipper Javeria Khan admitted that it was the team’s fault for the penalties. “I had a chat. They told me that after warning the players three times, they gave the penalties. It's unprofessionalism on our part because we were warned. It's not happened the first time. It's happened in the Sri Lanka series as well,” Javeria said.

This was not the first instance that a team was penalised five runs in the World T20. In the second match of the day between Ireland and Australia, another incident took place during Ireland’s innings. In the 13^th over bowled by Australia’s Delissa Kimmince, Laura Delany set off for a quick single but was disallowed and five penalty runs were awarded to Australia after the batter had run on to the danger area. Earlier, in the over, Gaby Lewis was officially warned for the offence.