The concept of penalty runs in cricket is well-known to almost every cricket fan. The penalty runs are always in the talks whenever any controversies in the game. However, rarely in the game of cricket, the penalty runs have actually been used. The laws of this are also lesser-known.
First, let us talk about cricket and how the game has become popular of late. Earlier, only a few teams used to play international cricket. But thanks to the efforts of the International Cricket Council, more than ten nations have Test-playing status now, while more than 50 countries are playing T20 cricket at the international level.
Coming back to the concept of penalty runs, in this article today, we will have a look at the three different scenarios where the umpires decided to penalize the teams with runs in the recent cricket matches.
1. When MS Dhoni’s mistake gave Bangladesh five penalty runs
The Indian cricket team qualified for the semifinals of the 2017 edition of the Champions Trophy, organized by the International Cricket Council. The Men in Bluefaced neighbors Bangladesh in the semifinal. While India won that match, there was a controversy in the 40th over of the Bangladeshi innings. MS Dhoni, who is one of the best wicket-keepers, ended up conceding five runs as a penalty as he breached Law 41.3. One of the gloves of Dhoni was on the ground. Dhoni attempted to run out in the 40th over with his trademark flick, but the ball hit the glove. As per the rules, if the ball hits any protective equipment on the ground like a helmet or gloves, the opposition gets five runs.
2. Deliberate short run
In the 2018 SL vs. England Test, Roshen Silva and Akila Dananjaya crossed at the middle of the pitch. But Roshen did not ground his bat at the non-striker’s end and returned to his end. It was after Moeen Ali stopped a slow ball going towards the boundary. Since the officials felt it was a deliberate short-run, SL were docked five runs.
3. Ball Tampering
In October 2013, during a Test between SA and Pakistan, the umpires decided to award five penalty runs to Pakistan after South Africa’s Faf du Plessis was allegedly rubbing the ball on a zipper of his trouser pocket to tamper the ball.
