By BIPIN DANI for Sri Lankasports.com
One of the two on-field umpires miscounted the balls in one over when Sri Lanka was batting first in the 1st ODI against South Africa at the R. Premadasa Stadium on Thursday.
This enabled the off-spinner Aiden Markram to bowl a 7-ball over in the 16th over of the innings.
Scorers have hardly any time to bring this to the notice of the third umpire when spinners are operating.
Dhananjaya de Silva ran a single off this “fair” delivery.
“Anything that happens on the 7th ball will stand and it just has to be recorded as a 7th ball in the scorebook”, Fred Stewart, the MCC Law manager, speaking exclusively over the telephone from Lord’s, said minutes after the incident.
Unfortunately, the 7th ball was a “fair” delivery.
“What 17.5.2 is saying is that if the 7th ball is a Wide or No ball and the umpires then realise that 6 valid balls have already been bowled, the umpire may call Over, without the need for bowling an extra ball for the Wide or No ball”, he added.
17.5 Umpire miscounting
17.5.1 If the umpire miscounts the number of valid balls, the over as counted by the umpire shall stand.
17.5.2 If, having miscounted, the umpire allows an over to continue after 6 valid balls have been bowled, he/she may subsequently call Over when the ball becomes dead after any delivery, even if that delivery is not a valid ball.
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