The penalty means that England will start their first innings at 5/0 without a ball being bowled.
Rajkot: India were on Friday handed a five-run penalty after Ravichandran Ashwin ran along the middle of the pitch on Day 2 of the ongoing third Test match against England in Rajkot. Notably, it was India’s second offence. Hence the penalty came in place. The penalty means England will start their first innings at 5/0 without even a ball being bowled. Ashwin was reprimanded by on-field umpire Joel Wilson.
The incident took place on the third ball of the 102nd over of Indian innings. After gently pushing a Rehan Ahmed delivery, Ashwin immediately set off for a single without perhaps realising where he was running, but was eventually sent back by debutant Dhruv Jurel. The Indian all-rounder ran on the middle of the pitch for a second offence from the Indian team as highlighted by the umpire. Earlier, centurion Ravindra Jadeja was guilty of committing the same offence.
According to MCC’s law 41.14.1, which comes under Unfair Play section, “It is unfair to cause deliberate or avoidable damage to the pitch. If the striker enters the protected area in playing or playing at the ball, he/she must move from it immediately thereafter.
“A batter will be deemed to be causing avoidable damage if either umpire considers that his/her presence on the pitch is without reasonable cause.” The law further states that a team will receive “a first and final warning”, which will apply throughout the innings. If the offence is repeated by any team member during the course of the innings, the batting side will be awarded a five-run penalty.
Meanwhile, India reached 388/7 at lunch on Day 2. Ravichandran Ashwin and debutant Dhruv Jurel were batting on 25 and 31 respectively at the break. The hosts resumed the second day’s play on their overnight score of 326/5 with Ravindra Jadeja and night-watchman Kuldeep Yadav at the crease.
Both Jadeja and Kuldeep, however, got out at the start of the day with Joe Root and James Anderson accounting for the two wickets. Jurel is one of the Indian debutants in the match. Sarfaraz Khan was the other, who played a free-flowing knock of 62 on Day 1 of the Test match.