Wanindu Hasaranga impressed one and all with his fielding skills during the Indian Premier League (IPL) 2022 Eliminator on Wednesday night. The Lankan spinner gave his 100 per cent to save valuable runs for his team. Whichever area he fielded at, he made sure that the ball shouldn’t go past him. But one of his acts, against the shot of Deepak Hooda near the boundary line, has raised quite a few questions about whether it was supposed to be given out or was it just a save.
The incident happened during the 10th over or LSG’s chase. Hooda slapped a short ball from Harshal Patel over the gap between cover and point. As the ball was going to clear the fence, it found the safe hands of Hasaranga in between who rushed in from deep point and grabbed the ball.
But the velocity of his sprint was so high that he was almost unstoppable. As he glided after taking the catch, he had a look if someone is near so that he could fling the ball at him. Since there was no one, he threw it inside the boundary line before his body came to rest. He managed to grab the ball back but missed it completely.
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The fact that Hasaranga held the ball in his hands for quite a long period of time before throwing it inwards is bothering the fans.
If we look at Law 33.3, it says, “The act of making a catch shall start from the time when the ball first comes into contact with a fielder’s person and shall end when a fielder obtains complete control over both the ball and his/her own movement.”
If the rulebook is to be followed, then Hasaranga took the catch but by the time he had gotten the control of the body, it would have been given a six as his body came to rest while making a contact with the boundary cushion.
Meanwhile, Hooda successfully took a single and the RCB spinner was hugely lauded for saving 5 valuable runs for his team.
After two failed attempts in 2020 and 2021, RCB managed to win the IPL eliminator this year. They will now face Rajasthan Royals in the Qualifier 2, which is scheduled to be held at Narendra Modi Stadium in Ahmedabad on Friday.
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