Now that we have been growing crazy about how the Sri Lanka players denied Sehwag his century, comes a pretty incisive analysis by the Yahoo! India editorial team on how the scorers and umpires actually screwed up.
Here is what happened, pure and simple: Randiv bowled. The umpire called ‘no-ball’. There is a reason the umpire calls it as soon as a bowler bowls one – it is to let the batsman know that there are no real penalties attached to having a go. A batsman, on hearing that call, knows he can have a swing without running the risk of being bowled, caught, declared LBW.
So Randiv bowled. The umpire called. Sehwag had a swing, and despatched the ball over the ropes.
That logically is seven runs added to the total – one to the team total as an extra, the other six to Sehwag, the batsman who was quick to seize on the opportunity. Simple.
This is where the idiocy of umpires and the ambiguity of the rule book come in: How could the game be over as soon as Randiv over-stepped? A ball, to be deemed bowled, has to be delivered; the batsman has to play/miss it; in the case of the former the ball has to be retrieved while the batsman runs, or not…there is no provision in cricket for declaring a result, and ending a match, at some intermediate stage of this process.
Thus, for umpires to declare that the game was over as soon as Randiv overstepped is plain folly. To understand this, consider a hypothetical situation: Randiv bowls. It is a no-ball. Sehwag decides the game is over, lets the ball go and walks off. Sangakkara collects and whips off the bails.
Is the batsman out? Of course he is. The extra run cannot be counted until the ball in question is officially dead; in our example Sehwag left his crease while the ball was in play, therefore he is out.
So, if his dismissal off a no ball counts, why were the runs he scored off that no ball not counted to his name?
via Fit to Post: Yahoo! India News » Blog Archive Sehwag Did Get His Century! «.
