Legendary South African cricketer and former skipper AB de Villiers has thrown some light on the loophole in Test cricket which fielding teams can exploit at times.
As the second Test of New Zealand-Pakistan in Karachi came to a thrilling close, and bad light made its way in once again, de Villiers pointed out that the bowling team can choose to close out the Test by not opting to bowl spinners.
In the fading light the umpires tell the fielding captain to only spinners, and, according to the rule, the fielding skipper will have the choice to take his side and leave the field if he doesn’t want to bowl spinners and wants to use a pacer.
“Another little grey area in the rule book imo. If the fielding team is told to bowl spin because of bad light and they take the option, they should be forced to finish the overs with spin until the Umps call it off, cause they can bring seam on at any time to finish the match,” AB de Villiers tweeted.
“If the batting team manages to get it down to 5 or so runs required, the fielding team can just opt to bring on a seamer. Not fair imo.”
If the batting team manages to get it down to 5 or so runs required, the fielding team can just opt to bring on a seamer. Not fair imo
— AB de Villiers (@ABdeVilliers17) January 6, 2023
The Karachi Test ended in similar circumstances as ABD predicted. Pakistan brought the equation down to 15 runs needed in the last 3 overs when the umpires had already told New Zealand that, because of the bad light, they can only bowl spinners and are not allowed to bowl the pacers.
Bad light won the battle in the end, with three overs still left officially. Pakistan needed 15 runs to win, and New Zealand needed only one wicket. The game could have gone either way had New Zealand continued with the spinners.
Former skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed made a terrific comeback to Test cricket after 4 years. He was adjudged the Player of the match in Karachi for his fifty in the first innings and century – his first in 8 years in Test cricket – which saved Pakistan from a loss. He was also adjudged the Player of the Series for finishing with an average of 85 and the leading scorer of the series with 3 fifties and a hundred.
