ICC Champions Trophy 2017: The reason why Bangladesh were awarded 5 penalty runs
There are a lot of ways to get runs in cricket. Aside from the runs off the bat and ones that are included during a wide or a no ball, there are also penalty runs that are awarded to either the batting or the bowling side depending on the nature of the infringement.
In the 40th over of the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 semi-final between India and Bangladesh, MS Dhoni’s attempt to hit the stumps with one of his trademark flicks failed and he ended up costing India five penalty runs as he breached Law 41.3 in the laws of the game.
The third ball of the 40th over of the innings was an eventful one, for more reasons than one. Ravichandran Ashwin delivered a full ball that was angling on the pads and it was swept towards long leg by Mahmudullah. Yuvraj Singh threw the ball to MS Dhoni and the Indian wicketkeeper tried to flick it onto the stumps.
Unfortunately for him and India, the ball didn’t hit the stumps and instead hit Dhoni’s glove that was on the ground and hence five penalty runs were awarded to Bangladesh. Although the law particularly talks about protective helmets, gloves worn by the keeper also count as protective equipment and as the ball, which was still active hit the gloves, the penalty was awarded against India.
Here is Law 41.3 (The Fielder) Protective helmets belonging to the fielding side:
In accordance with the rules, the ball was not counted and had to be bowled again. Not only that but the run that was scored by the batsman (Mahmudullah) was counted along with the five penalty runs that was awarded to Bangladesh.
The incident took place soon after a mini-collapse from Bangladesh that saw them completely lost the plot after the fall of Tamim Iqbal's wicket. From 154/2 before the fall of the opener’s wicket, they collapsed to 179/5 and lost both set batsmen (Tamim and Mushfiqur).