The Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 is just a few weeks away and as the cash-rich tournament enters a new season, there are quite a few changes that will be witnessed, barring from the minor shuffle that every franchise witnessed last month.
The T20 extravaganza bowls out with the opener between Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) and Mumbai Indians (MI) at the M.A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on April 9.
Here are the rules changes that have been made for the upcoming IPL:
Soft Signal: Onfield Umpire giving Soft Signal while referring the decision to the third Umpire will not be applicable in IPL 2021.
The decision to remove the soft signal has been taken by the IPL Governing Council so that the third umpire can make the best possible decision without keeping the on-field call in mind.
Short-run: In case of the short run, the third umpire will now check the short run and can overturn the decision made by the on-field umpires.
This short-run point became a huge point of debate last year after the match between Kings XI Punjab (now Punjab Kings) and Delhi Capitals (DC). The Preity Zinta-co-owned franchise also made an official complaint after her team ended up on the losing side.
No-ball: As per the updated guidelines, now the third umpire can overrule the no-ball decision made by the on-field umpire.
Super-Over: There is another updated clause in the playing conditions and according to it, in an uninterrupted match, subsequent super overs can be played till an hour’s time from the actual finished time of the tied matches (Clause 16.3.1).
Minimum Over Rate: A change has also been made in the Minimum Over Rate system. Previously, the Match Playing Conditions suggested that “the minimum over rate to be achieved in IPL matches shall be 14.11 overs per hour (ignoring the time taken by time-outs). In uninterrupted matches, this means that the 20th over should start within 90 minutes (being 85 minutes of playing time plus 5 minutes of time-out) of the start of the innings. For delayed or interrupted matches where an innings is scheduled to be less than 20 overs, the maximum time of 90 minutes shall be reduced by 4 minutes 15 seconds for every over by which the innings is reduced.”
According to Clause 12.7.1 in the new guidelines, the 20th over is included in the 90 minutes.
(With ANI Inputs)
