TOI explains the law which forced both sides to make crucial fielding changes...
Both India and Pakistan failed to complete their quota of overs within the stipulated time, which forced them to put an extra fielder inside the circle towards the end of the innings, as mandated by the new overrate penalty laws. This proved to be a particularly important factor during India's chase.
- In the new ICC T20I playing conditions, if the bowling team fails to bowl the first ball of the final over of their innings within the stipulated time, they will lose one fielder from outside of the 30-yard circle for the remainder of the innings.
- This means the bowling team needs to be at the 19.1 mark by the 85th minute. These over-rate regulations are mentioned in clause 13.8 of the ICC Men's T20I playing conditions.
- For example, a team bowling the 18th over after the 85th-minute mark will have to bowl the remaining overs with maximum four fielders outside the inner circle instead of five.
- However, any time lost due to injury or other unforeseen incidents will be taken into consideration. This potentially game changing law has been adopted by the International Cricket Council (ICC) from the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB), which introduced the same set of regulations for their white-ball tournaments in 2021.
- India were so slow they were just short of the 18-over mark by the 85th minute. So, they had to bowl out the remaining two overs (the 19th and 20th) with five fielders inside the circle.
- Pakistan were slower, having bowled just 17 overs by the cut-off time. They had to bowl the last three overs with one fielder less manning the boundary. This made things easy for India as they ended up scoring 32 off 16 balls, reaching the target with two balls to spare.
- The in-match penalties are in addition to the sanctions for slow over-rate outlined in Article 2.22 of the ICC Code of Conduct. The rule was first implemented in a one-off T20I between West Indies and Ireland.
