IPL 2021: RCB denied two runs due to loophole in law

The Royal Challengers Bangalore (RCB) had a sensational start to the Eliminator contest against Kolkata Knight Riders, but they lost momentum courtesy a magnificent spell from Sunil Narine. The West Indian dismissed the four core batters in the RCB lineup – Virat Kohli, KS Bharat, AB de Villiers and Glenn Maxwell, to help his side restrict the opponents to just 138 runs batting first.

However, the men in red-and-black will be left hard done by the loophole in DRS laws, which prevented them two crucial runs in this low-scoring encounter. There were two instances in the game when the on-field umpire, Virender Sharma, had given an RCB batter out and upon referral, the decision was overturned. Unfortunately for Kohli’s men, the runs they took off those deliveries don’t get added.

On both occasions, the decision from the umpire was dreadful. The first of the two instances took place in the 16th over off Varun Chakravarthy’s bowling, when his loopy full-toss was a little too slow for Shahbaz Ahmed to reverse-sweep and he could only get a single. Although it took a huge inside edge before hitting the pads, Virender Sharma had given the batter out after long deliberation, only for the decision to be reversed almost immediately.

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The second instance came in the final over, and once again, it was a full-toss from a KKR bowler that hit the pad and the umpire got it wrong. Harshal Patel was given LBW and although it looked like the impact was well outside off, there was also a thin edge detected on Ultra Edge that kept him alive. However, a single was denied once again, much to the disappointment of the RCB fans.

The law that denied RCB two runs

According to IPL’s playing conditions, when a player requests a review when the original decision is out, the ball will be deemed dead according to law 3.7.1, a subset of law 3.7 titled “Dead Ball”.

“If following a Player Review request, an original decision of Out is changed to Not out, then the ball is still deemed to have become dead when the original decision was made (as per clause 20.1.1.3). The batting side, while benefiting from the reversal of the dismissal, shall not benefit from any runs that may subsequently have accrued from the delivery had the on-field umpire originally made a Not out decision, other than any No ball penalty that could arise under paragraph 3.3.5 above” – Law 3.7.1 states.

The law is pretty much similar in the opposite scenario, i.e., when the batter is given not out and upon referral is deemed out, the ball will be considered dead retrospectively, thus negating any potential runs scored during the process.