Chandimal gets lucky with ‘deceptive fielding’

An interesting incident occurred during the morning session of the third day involving Sri Lankan captain Dinesh Chandimal. And the birthday boy narrowly escaped punishment.

It happened when Bhuvneshwar Kumar stroked paceman Dasun Shanaka to cover point, and Chandimal moving in from cover, appeared to dive late and then shape for a throw — before pulling back — without the ball in his hand.

The ball passed Chandimal and was subsequently fielded and thrown back. Following the proceedings from the pavilion, Indian captain Virat Kohli seemed convinced that his team was deprived penalty runs.

The umpire had a word with Chandimal, who turned 28 on Saturday, but the Sri Lankan skipper was not penalised.

According to the latest ICC rules, “Deceptive fielding” could be punished with five penalty runs by the umpires.

An umpire in the BCCI panel told

The Hindu , “Earlier it was called “mock” fielding but there were no penalty runs that could be awarded to the opposition.

“Now the ICC has come down hard on it.”

He added, “I will give you another example. If a wicket-keeper, standing up to a spinner, collects the ball after the batsman is beaten and then looks back creating an impression that the ball had passed him, deceiving the batsman into setting off for a run, it is a clear case of “Deceptive fielding.”

However, an umpire has to make the distinction between deliberate acts and those that occur in the flow and rhythm of fielding.

It was also a day when Angelo Mathews received an official warning for hurtling down the pitch and Kohli was spoken to by the umpires for Umesh Yadav running into the dander area.