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Delhi Capitals head coach Ricky Ponting and off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin have been at the centre of the attraction ever since the start of the IPL 2020. It’s all because Ponting had said that he won’t allow Ashwin to ‘Mankad’ a player during the cash-rich league. Recently, the theory was put to the test during an IPL T20 clash between Delhi Capitals (DC) and Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) in Dubai.
RCB opener Aaron Finch left the non-striker’s end before the ball was delivered and Ashwin was about to Mankad him, but he did not. Instead, he gave a warning to Finch and Ponting, sitting in the Capitals dugout, had a beaming smile on his face.
In the meantime, the official Twitter handle of Iceland Cricket – known to come up with funny tweets – this time around took a hilarious dig at Ponting who is against the bowler running out the non-striker. They posted a picture of MS Dhoni stumping AB de Villiers and tweeted what the former Australian skipper’s statement, in that case, would be.
“This is so unsporting of MS Dhoni. He does it all the time. The batsman only came out of his crease by a short margin and he didn’t mean to. Dhoni should be giving the batsman a warning and then let him carry on batting – Ricky Ponting.”
“This is so unsporting of MS Dhoni. He does it all the time. The batsman only came out of his crease by a short margin and he didn’t mean to. Dhoni should be giving the batsman a warning and then let him carry on batting.” — Ricky Ponting pic.twitter.com/fMBZ3tYPda
— Iceland Cricket (@icelandcricket) October 6, 2020
The tweet has so far garnered over 2400 retweets as well as close to 17,200 likes.
Is running out the non-striker within the laws of the game?
Ever since Ashwin has run-out Rajasthan Royals (RR) opener Jos Buttler in the last IPL season, the debate has been going on. While the Indian off-spinner has been firm on his stand, many England and Aussie experts have continued to debate stating that the dismissal is not within the spirit of the game. However, the discussion itself shouldn’t come into the picture when it is well within the laws of the game, and Ashwin believes that the batsmen have no right to take an undue advantage.