INDIA VS AUSTRALIA, 2017

Players left confused with crossover of rules

by Kaushik Rangarajan • Last updated on

I didn't know there was a review system until about the fifth over. Nobody did - Aaron Finch © AFP

The supposed selective adoption of ICC's new playing conditions in the rain-curtailed T20I at Ranchi left members of both India and Australia confused. As the bilateral assignment began on September 17 (before the new rules took effect on September 28), the two teams had a pre-series agreement that the games would be played as per the old set of rules to avoid ambiguity.

Therefore, restrictions on bat thickness, new fielding rules and the changes in the implementation of the Decision Review System (DRS) would not be put to effect during the course of the series. According to Aaron Finch the option of using DRS - a new rule for T20Is - was in place for the game while the playing conditions for bowlers in a shortened game weren't put into use when Australia returned to defend a score of 48 in six overs.

According to the new playing conditions, if an innings in a T20 game is reduced to less than 10 overs, the maximum quota of overs per bowler shall not be less than two: meaning that if a match is reduced to six overs a side, as it was on Saturday, three bowlers would be able to bowl two overs each.

However, only Nathan Coulter-Nile was allowed to bowl two overs with the next four overs distributed among four other bowlers - Jason Behrendorff, Andew Tye, Adam Zampa, Daniel Christian - as per the old rules.

This "crossover of rules" left Finch confused, who had been informed of the presence of DRS by the non-playing Steven Smith.

"I didn't know there was a review system until about the fifth over. Nobody did," Finch said. "Steve Smith, when he ran out a drink, mentioned it. So we had to ask the umpires. But it is quite strange to have a crossover of rules for this series."

"I mean bat sizes and things like that are coming in at the end of the series. The over situation with a shortened game ... three bowlers being allowed to bowl two overs. But DRS was in for this. It didn't have any effect on the game. I just thought it was quite odd to have mixed and matched the rules for this series."

Shikhar Dhawan, the India opener, wasn't too bothered about the changes. "I'm sure they would have definitely felt the inconsistency. But whatever is the rule, is the rule. I'm not exactly aware of the rule you were talking about. It is what it is," he said.

© Cricbuzz

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