IPL 10: When David Warner defied the basic rule of cricket

In a bizarre and rare incident, the Sunrisers Hyderabad skipper David Warner was seen disrupting a basic rule of the game of cricket. Well, he obviously did not do it on purpose. It was rather the umpires who were at fault when their ignorance saw Warner take the strike in an over during a game despite not having taken a single or a three on the last ball of the previous over.

The incident took place during the match between the Sunrisers Hyderabad and the Mumbai Indians. Jasprit Bumrah bowled the 6th over of the innings as David Warner and Shikhar Dhawan were the two batsmen at the crease. Bumrah bowled the last ball of the over which was on the off side. Warner latched on to the loose delivery and used Bumrah’s pace to hit a boundary over the backward point region.

So 4 runs were scored on the last ball of the 6th over. Hence, by the rules of cricket, the other batsman – Shikhar Dhawan in this case – should have taken the strike in the next over. However, it was David Warner who played the first ball of the 7th over again. Mitch McClenaghan ran in to bowl the over. Warner played it towards the long on region and took a single. Well, nobody noticed what had just perspired. Neither did the commentators realise what happened nor did the on-field fielders or umpires.

However, once the event was done, many pundits and experts noticed the mistake and started taking to the social media to reveal the same. Aakash Chopra, one of the veteran commentators spoke about the same and expressed his amazement over the entire episode.

In his tweet, Aakash wrote, “Warner played the last ball of the 6th over…hit a boundary. And then played the 1st ball of the 7th over. How on earth is that possible???”

Warner played the last ball of the 6th over…hit a boundary. And then played the 1st ball of the 7th over. How on earth is that possible???

— Aakash Chopra (@cricketaakash) April 12, 2017