MATCH STORIES
Follow UsRemember that left-arm spinner from Scotland who carried a matchup sheet in his pockets to look at? And then he actually got wickets in the game to prove that his impromptu study on the ground wasn’t just to make his team analyst happy?
That same spinner, Mark Watt of Scotland, is also known for delivering his balls from just behind the umpire. It disrupts the rhythm of the batters as they suddenly have a ball coming at them from 24 yards and not 22 (roughly).
However, playing against Oman in the ongoing ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, Watt was stopped from applying this method twice.
It was the ninth over the game, and Omani batters Pratik Athavale and Khalid Kail were at the crease. After three deliveries in the over, Watt tried his 24-yard delivery from behind the umpire. However, Kail pulled out of the delivery.
Watt then returned to his usual stock delivery on the next delivery, but on what would have been the fifth legal delivery of that over, he tried to bowl from behind the umpire again.
Clearly, Kail was ready to play that delivery and opted out of playing extremely late. The ball crashed into the stumps, and the umpire signalled dead ball. Watt was absolutely fuming after that call, and soon, his teammates joined in and protested against that call.
It should be noted here that there’s nothing in Law 20 of cricket that deals with dead balls on this particular kind of delivery. Additionally, Watt hasn’t been the only bowler to employ such tactics. Other modern tweakers like R. Ashwin have also tried this tactic, including pacers like Bhuvneshwar Kumar—none of the earlier instances faced such scrutiny from the umpires.
However, it’s also worth mentioning here that under Law 41 of cricket, which deals with Unfair Play, umpires are allowed to call a ball ‘dead’ if they feel that any of the players/teams have engaged in acts that may give them unfair advantage in the game over the other players/team.
“The umpires shall be the sole judges of fair and unfair play. If an umpire considers that any action by a player, not covered in the Laws, is unfair, he/she shall call and signal Dead ball, if appropriate, as soon as it becomes clear that the call will not disadvantage the non-offending side, and report the matter to the other umpire,” the Law 41.2.1 of the MCC states.
Watt wasn’t impressed with the decision-making in the middle.
“It was a bit sneaky. The batter was ready to bat, and so I bowled it. In my eyes, it was a fair delivery. I told the umpire that I would do it again if he did that. Just one of the things people know that I’m going to do it,” the Scottish spinner said in his defence.
In the end, it was an immensely fruitful outing for Scotland, who defeated Oman by seven wickets with 41 deliveries remaining in the game. Watt was economical and his 1/25 was crucial in Scotland restricting Oman to 150/7. The Scots are comfortably sitting at the top of Group B and have a high chance of qualifying for the Super Eight.
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