Former Pakistan captain Sarfaraz Ahmed sparked controversy with his tweet slamming a female Pakistani journalist for her comments on the Babar Azam-led side having a fielder less outside the 30-yard circle in the last three overs of their Asia Cup 2022 opener against India due to slow over-rate at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium. Sarfaraz highlighted the cramps that Pakistan pacers Haris Rauf and Naseem Shah suffered because of the heat and humidity which hampered their over-rate and in the end resulted in them having only four instead of five boundary riders from the start of the 18th over.
“Pak had the disadvantage after 17th over 5 fielders were inside the circle cuz of slow over rate & 1 of the so called female journalist on national TV bashing Pakistan team after a fighting match & saying na run karte hai na catch pakarte hai kamal hai bhi,” the former Pakistan wicketkeeper-batter tweeted.
Sarfaraz did not name the journalist or the show he was talking about but it was evident that he was miffed about the criticism meted out towards the Pakistan players after a hard-fought contest against India which the latter won in the last over.
Notably, India too had a fielder less outside the inner ring for slow over-rate in the final two overs of Pakistan’s innings.
Here is how fans debated on Twitter after Sarafarz Ahmed’s ‘so-called female journalist’ tweet
So why did India and Pakistan have a fielder less in the last few overs of the crucial encounter? ICC came up with a new rule this January to penalise teams for slow-over rates. According to the rules, a fielding side has to be in position to start the last over of a T20I innings within 85 minutes – the stipulated time calculated by ICC – under normal circumstances. If the team fails to do that then they will have to be content with a fielder less in the boundary for the number of overs they were short of. For example, India had bowled only 18 overs in the stipulated time and hence, they had to keep five fielders inside the ring for the remaining two overs. In Pakistan’s case, they had bowled 17 overs and were found short of the target by three overs so they were allowed to keep a maximum of four fielders outside the ring instead of the normal five from overs 18-20.
Before you get confused, the time lost during DRS and things beyond the control of the fielding side like external injuries to either the batter or a member of the fielding side is taken into consideration before penalising a team for slow over-rate. Rauf and Shah’s cramps were taken into account by ICC but despite the extra allowance, Pakistan fell short of the target by three overs.
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