Surrey's Dernbach hits out at 12-run penalty against Somerset

What’s the story?

Stand-in Surrey captain Jade Dernbach has hit out at the match officials for awarding his side a 12-run penalty in real-time owing to a slow over rate during their T20 Blast clash against Somerset at the Oval.

The penalty awarded almost cost Surrey the game as Somerset, helped by a 45-ball 81 by all-rounder Corey Anderson, came tantalizingly close to the target of 182 but fell short only by 4 runs.

It so happened that during the 18th over of Somerset’s innings, with the visitors needing 51 runs and being eight down already, on-field umpires deemed that the innings had exceeded its stipulated completion time of 1 hour and 15 minutes, and a 12-run penalty - at the rate of 6 runs per over - was charged against the hosts.

Incidentally, Anderson hit two sixes in that over and combined with the penalty imposed, the equation was brought down to a more achievable 23 off 12 balls.

However, Somerset couldn’t make full use of this shade of luck, as Aaron Finch, who had starred with the bat with a 42-ball 61 ran Anderson out to bring some life back in the Surrey camp.

Despite the near escape, Dernbach was frustrated with the proceedings and no minced no words while making his opinion felt.

“There needs to be a consistent level of timekeeping,” Dernbach said.

“Against Essex at Chelmsford last Friday evening the clock was stopped several times and there was a big screen on the ground which showed exactly where we were at all times. Here, the first I really knew about it was when the penalty was given. I was pretty much in the dark,” he added.

Arguing that the relatively big size of the Oval meant that the batsmen took some time to walk in and walk out, Dernbach contended that his side was penalized for picking up too many wickets too early in the innings.

“Effectively, too, with no time being allowed for all the wickets falling, we were being penalized for taking too many of their wickets too early. The Oval is a big ground and it takes longer for batsmen to walk out here than many other venues,” he said.

In case you didn’t know...

The contentious issue of slow over rates has been in discussion for some time now, with the ICC imposing strict penalties, ranging from a cut in the match fee to the suspension of the erring team’s captain.

Recently, Upul Tharanga, who was standing in for Angelo Mathews as Sri Lanka’s skipper was suspended for two ODIs post Sri Lanka’s match against South Africa in the ICC Champions Trophy 2017.

Sri Lanka took more than 4 hours to complete their allotted quota of 50 overs, something that the ICC termed as a ‘serious’ over-rate offence.

More recently, Angelo Mathews, the full-time Sri Lanka captain was fined 20 percent of his match fee and his teammates were docked 10 percent each for failing to complete their overs in time during the second ODI against Zimbabwe.

Details

As frustrated as Dernbach sounds, it cannot be denied that the umpires followed the correct procedure, which was in line with the England and Wales Cricket Board’s playing conditions for the competition.

Law 16.6 of ECB’s playing conditions reads, “All sides are expected to be in position to bowl the first ball of the last of their 20 overs within 1 hr 15 minutes playing time.”

“In the event of them failing to do so, the full quota of overs will be completed, and the batting side will be credited with 6 runs for every whole over that has not been bowled.

“If the side batting second is credited with runs in this way and this consequently takes their score to or past their victory target then the match shall be deemed to be won by the side batting second.

“All penalties in this regard will be imposed immediately the ball first becomes dead after the scheduled or re-scheduled cessation time for the innings,” the law states.

Author’s take

Over-rate offences have taken a serious turn since the ICC put in place stricter rules ranging from fines to suspensions, but such a practice of imposing a penalty in terms of runs, especially without a time-check being given to the fielding captain, does invite questions.

While the officials were right in their own place while awarding the penalty, the manner in which it was done - during an ongoing game, and not at the break of the innings or in the next game - could have had serious implications on the outcome of the game, as it so nearly did.