England awarded five penalty runs after India repeatedly run on pitch – with Ashwin final straw

Ravichandran Ashwin got a warning for running down the middle of the pitch – Jio Cinema

England have been awarded five penalty runs after India were punished for running straight down the pitch in a bid to rough it up and promote spin.

In the 102nd over of India’s first innings, umpire Joel Wilson signalled that England had been awarded five penalty runs after Ravichandran Ashwin, facing Rehan Ahmed, knocked the ball into the offside and charged down the middle of the pitch, only to spin on his spikes and turn around when a run was not available.

In the final session of the opening day, both Sarfaraz Khan and Ravindra Jadeja had been spoken to by the umpires for running on the pitch, so Ashwin’s indiscretion was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Ashwin, a stickler for the game’s laws, sought clarity from Wilson across numerous conversations, but appeared to accept the decision. In the overs after, England’s fielders were clearly keeping an eye on where he and the debutant Dhruv Jurel were running.

International Cricket Council playing condition 41.14 says that, after a first and final warning, the fielding side will be awarded five penalty runs if batsmen continue to run on the pitch. Rather than the runs being docked from India’s total, England will start their innings on five without loss.

Such incidents are seen rarely. In 2020, New Zealand were awarded five penalty runs in Sydney when Australia’s David Warner and Marnus Labuschagne were told off for running on the pitch.

In a Test against New Zealand at Indore in 2016, Jadeja was penalised 50 per cent of his match fee and handed three demerit points by the ICC for repeatedly “causing avoidable damage to the pitch”. Jadeja had been ticked off for running on the pitch earlier in the series, too.

Running down the pitch could rough the surface up, promoting spin later in the game. The pitch at Rajkot has been true for the first four sessions, but there have been indications that it will break up significantly later in the game. If a bowler is found to be running in the danger area in the middle of the pitch, the umpires can insist they are whipped out of the attack.

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