IPL 2021: Kieron Pollard leaves crease before ball being bowled; sparks debate
Pollard leaves crease early (Photo: IPL)
An incident took place during Punjab Kings and Mumbai Indians match on Friday that sparked a massive debate regarding mankading. Mumbai Indians batsman Kieron Pollard was spotted leaving the crease while Mohammed Shami still had the ball in his hand.
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Pollard already had a yard's advantage before even the ball was bowled. The incident irked several netizens and cricketing experts. Former Indian cricketer-turned commentator Murali Karthik was upset and said that it called for a stricter rule to be brought in to handle and penalise such cases.
A similar incident took a few days ago during CSK vs RR clash when Dwayne Bravo was seen leaving the crease during Mustafizur's over. The pacer was penalised with a no-ball after stepping a few inches ahead of the crease.
Former India pacer Venkatesh Prasad took to Twitter and said: The bowler overstepping by a few inches is penalised, but a batsman backing up a few yards isn’t. The bowler has every right to run out a batsman backing up so far. PERIOD. Calling it against the spirit of the game is a joke @ICC."
Mumbai Indians, however, did not win the match as Punjab Kings restricted them to 131 runs within 20 overs. KL Rahul and Chris Gayle took PBKS over the line with a 79-run stand.