Throughout their IPL match in opposition to Punjab Kings on Tuesday, three Kolkata Knight Riders’s batsmen, Andre Russell, Sunil Narine and Anrich Nortje’s bats failed the gauge check and had been made to exchange them. “Umpires have a brand new toy. Batters coming in with their 2nd selection bats…Verify the scores… haha,” Dale Steyn tweeted cheekily late on Wednesday evening after the conclusion of the KKR vs Punjab Kings sport.
The triangle-shaped plastic gauge has the size of a authorized bat printed on it: depth 2.68 inches, width 4.33 inches, edges 1.61 inches. The curve, or the bulge of the bat, seen on the decrease non-hitting facet of the bat, must be inside 0.20 inches.
Earlier than this season, bats weren’t examined on match days; officers would conduct checks on the eve of the sport. However this technique had an apparent loophole: some batsmen would flip up for the sport with totally different bats.
When Andre Russell got here out to bat in opposition to Punjab Kings within the eleventh over, the umpire Saidharshan Kumar administered the gauge check and the bat didn’t go via.
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Narine’s incident occurred earlier than the beginning of the KKR chase. Since he’s an opener, Narine’s bat was checked past the boundary simply previous to his batting stint. The fourth umpire Saiyed Khalid was seen checking the bats of Narine and Angkrish Raghuvanshi, who had been standing beside the boundary. Khalid could possibly be seen in a video, attempting the gauge and failing to clear the thickest a part of the bat. Narine then says one thing to him, and the umpire tries once more however with related outcomes. He then passes the gauge via Raghuvanshi’s bat with none difficulty.
When Nortje got here to bat on the finish of the fifteenth over, he too failed the gauge check and the substitute participant Rahmanullah Gurbaz ran out with the alternative bat that was deemed authorized.
However Nortje didn’t face a ball as Russell fell the very subsequent supply, inside-edging a heave as Punjab Kings pulled off a shocking victory.
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Chatting with The Indian Specific, IPL chairman Arun Dhumal had earlier stated the choice was taken to make sure equity on the sector. “No person ought to really feel that any individual’s received an undue benefit,” he stated. “The BCCI and IPL have all the time taken all initiatives on this path in order that equity of the sport is maintained. Now we have used expertise to the utmost to be sure that all choices will be reviewed in order that the video games don’t get unfairly affected. The thought behind this initiative is to make sure that the spirit of the sport is maintained,” Dhumal stated.
Delhi Capitals’s quick bowler Mohit Sharma had a light-hearted tackle the bat checks, saying, ”That’s actually good, please examine these bats. As it’s we’ve got been seeing such massive sixes. If a bat or two are caught outsized then ban them additionally.”