The last ball that was not called a 'No-ball' during the high-tension match between Royal Challengers Bangalore and Mumbai Indians has brought the popping crease into focus. On Wednesday, there was almost another no-ball incident. Almost.
The packed Wankhede Stadium, minus a handful of Chennai Super Kings supporters, were hoping that Ravindra Jadeja had actually overstepped the line when the home team captain Rohit Sharma nicked him off his first ball behind to MS Dhoni.
Jadeja has the habit of stretching his front leg, the right leg, far outside the popping crease but pulls it back in the nick of time to land well within the crease at the time of delivery. The same thing happened when he bowled his first delivery in this mother of all IPL clashes, MI vs CSK on Wednesday evening.
Rival captain Rohit Sharma was under pressure to accelerate the scoring and was batting on 13 after consuming 17 deliveries. Trying to push at the ball, Sharma was done in by the marginal turn that took his outside edge.
As is the practice for the umpires to check for overstepping at the fall of a wicket, Australian umpire Rod Tucker reached out to the third umpire Yeshwant Berde to check for No Ball.
Action replays showed that while Jadeja seemed to land outside the crease, he pulled back his right leg marginally that when the front part of his leg lands on the ground, the back of his heel raised in the air is slightly above the inside of the popping crease. Remember, the line belongs to the umpire.
No Ball Law 21.5.2 says that "the bowler's front foot must land with some part of the foot, whether grounded or raised on the same side of the imaginary line joining the two middle stumps as the return crease described in 21.5.1, and behind the popping crease."
In Sharma's case, Jadeja's front foot, when raised, was behind the popping crease, and rightfully was a legal delivery. That meant Sharma had to continue his march back to the pavilion.
