In the first T20I of India’s tour of the West Indies and the USA, held on Thursday (August 3), at the Brian Lara Cricket Stadium in Trinidad, the hosts secured a thrilling victory against India by a narrow margin of four runs, drawing first blood in the T20I leg of the series.
After restricting the Windies to a total just shy of 150 runs in their 20 overs, India faced a challenging run-chase from the outset. The Indian batting lineup struggled, losing wickets at regular intervals, and failing to build substantial partnerships. The only standout performance came from debutant Tilak Varma, who showcased his aggressive batting style and scored a charismatic 39 runs off just 22 balls, at an impressive strike rate of 177.27.
After his dismissal, India needed a solid contribution from their lower order to have a chance of successfully chasing down the target set by the West Indies. However, to India’s dismay, Hardik Pandya, Sanju Samson and Axar Patel couldn’t deliver under pressure, leaving the team with a daunting task of scoring 10 runs off the last over with Kuldeep Yadav and Arshdeep Singh at the crease.
Umpires prevent Yuzvendra Chahal from going back to dugout
As the final over began, Romario Shepherd struck immediately by knocking Yadav’s stumps on the first ball. After that Yuzvendra Chahal walked out to bat at number 10, ahead of debutant Mukesh Kumar.
Nevertheless, a rare and intriguing incident occurred as Chahal had already covered more than half the distance to the crease when a substitute fielder, Umran Malik, handed him a message. This prompted the 33-year-old to quickly run back to the dressing room. It turned out that the Indian team had intended to send Mukesh to bat at number 10 instead of the leg-spinner.
By the time Chahal returned to the boundary ropes, Mukesh was already prepared to walk out as the next batter. But, the two on-field umpires Gregory Brathwaite and Patrick Gustard asked the Jind-born cricketer to stay back and bat, enforcing Law 25.2, which deals with the commencement of a batter’s innings:
“The innings of the first two batters, and that of any new batter on the resumption of play after a call of Time, shall commence at the call of Play. At any other time, a batter’s innings shall be considered to have commenced when that batter first steps onto the field of play,” the law reads.
Since Chahal had already stepped into the field of play, his innings had technically commenced, and India could not have called him back for a different batter, unless they were willing to retire him out.
Anyhow, Chahal had to face only one ball of the over and he managed to take a single. After Arshdeep got out, Kumar eventually walked out at No.11 to face the last ball of the innings, with India requiring six runs to win. The 29-year-old could only manage a single off a perfect yorker delivered by Romario Shepherd, and India fell just four runs short of the target.
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