Slow over rate: Add a few minutes, it'll not hurt the game

Published>Thu, Apr 01 10 12:16 PM

Mumbai, April 1 -- The Mumbai Indians' late charge with the bat wasn't the only worrying aspect for Mahela Jayawardene on Tuesday night. The Kings XI Punjab stand-in skipper had to keep his team's over rate in check as well. After all, he was forced to take over the reins from Kumar Sangakkara who was banned for a match following three offences of slow over rate in the tournament. And Jayawardene wasn't sure if his team hadn't exceeded the time limit for the fourth time in seven games after the end of the match. When he was asked at the post-match media conference how difficult was it to maintain the over rate in a high-pressure Twenty20 match, Jayawardene's spontaneous reaction was: "Am I out as well after this? "Though Jayawardene made it clear that he was "joking", he did admit it was very tough for captains to maintain the over rate. "Just imagine that we are given four minutes an over and all these are crucial matches. The first six overs are very, very crucial. You've to think a lot as the batsmen are always going after the bowlers. Probably, in the middle overs, you can just run around and try and finish off the overs. And then again in the last few overs, you've to think. It's very tough," Jayawardene said after yet another heart-breaking loss for KXIP. Though Jayawardene was lucky to have escaped punishment, his counterpart Sachin Tendulkar wasn't. The Mumbai Indians were found one over short during their fielding stint. Since it was the second time they were found guilty of the same offence, skipper Tendulkar was fined $40,000 while each of his teammates was fined $10,000. With so much at stake in the IPL, a captain may not mind being fined if he has to take a little time to shift from plan B to C. Jayawardene certainly felt that if the duration of an IPL innings is increased, it will help Twenty20 cricket a great deal. "If a few minutes are added to a T20 game, it will be very beneficial," Jayawardene said.

Over to you, Mr Modi.

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