For the first time in the last two months, Pakistan managed to win a cricket contest against India, courtesy their ruthless eight-wicket win in the Rising Stars Asia Cup game in Doha on Sunday (November 16). While Pakistan's bowlers restricted India to a low total of 136, Maaz Sadaqat blasted an unbeaten 79 off just 47 balls to carve out an easy win for his side.
What happened?
Sadaqat had a huge slice of luck midway through his innings. The incident happened in the tenth over of the Pakistan innings while the opener was trying to smash Suyash Sharma for a six over mid-wicket. Nehal Wadhera sprinted backwards and was always going to go past the rope with the momentum. Hence, he parried the ball uppishly back in for Naman Dhir, even as he himself crossed the rope.
Dhir, who was watching ball closely, took the catch well and India were celebrating instantly. After all, it was an exceptional bit of tag-team fielding, one that we have seen so many times in modern T20 cricket. However, here is the twist. According to the latest ICC rules, this wasn't a legal catch.
ICC's latest rules
Few months earlier, the ICC had revised many of their laws and one of them was regarding tag-team catches near the boundary. One of the clauses stated that both fielders must be back in the field of play when the catch is being completed. In this incident, Wadhera was still outside the boundary rope while Dhir was taking the catch, perhaps unaware of the change in rules.
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The third umpire, though, made the right call as Wadhera needed to be inside the field of play before Dhir took the catch. At that particular time, everybody including the Indian team was in shock when the third umpire ruled this not out. Captain Jitesh Sharma was seen in a long conversation with the on-field umpires, presumably trying to understand the details of the law.
Sadaqat went on to smash his way to a brilliant unbeaten knock. Perhaps, his dismissal wouldn't have changed the result of the game as Pakistan were well ahead anyway. However, this incident created a spark, as you would expect, in an India-Pakistan game.
