Ravindra Jadeja has been in the thick of action all through the series. In the series-opener in Kanpur, his runs lower down the order and wickets in heaps made him the man of the match. In Kolkata, he bowled tidily and was even cautioned by the umpires for running on to the danger areas while batting.
On Sunday, the second day of the last of the three Tests against New Zealand, Jadeja was not only cautioned first for the same offence but when he committed the same mistake for the second time, umpire Bruce Oxenford even penalised the Indian team with five runs.
Subsequently, the all-rounder was fined 50 per cent of his match fee and received three demerit points for breaching Level 2 of the ICC Code of Conduct, the International Cricket Council said in a release.
Batsmen often try to subtly soften the surface up with the spikes of their shoes while running between the wickets, especially in sub continental conditions to aid bowlers. However, Jadeja appeared to have blatantly overdone it, thus raising a doubt.
Mike Hesson, the Black Caps head coach, though diplomatically tackled a query about the five penalty runs awarded to his team. “Surface still pretty good, fair to say footmarks building as they tend to do, but body of surface is good. I’m sure the umpires will maintain that,” he said.
When a bowler runs on to the danger area on the pitch in his follow-through, he is cautioned twice and is taken off the attack for the rest of the innings at the third instance. A batsman, however, can continue to run on to the prevented zone while batting and see his team being punished with penalty runs. Asked if the rules are in favour of the batsmen who are not barred from batting on, Hesson was at his eloquent best.
“In countries where the wickets deteriorate like this, the umpires have to be very decisive around how the look after the middle of the wicket. There are rules in place and the need to stick to those,” he said.
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