Should Akash Deep’s delivery to Joe Root — which saw the batter’s stumps get rattled in England’s second innings on Saturday — have been chalked off for a back-foot no-ball?
Akash Deep sent Root packing for a paltry six runs off 16 balls in the 11th over as England slumped to 50/3 in their second innings of the second Test against India at Birmingham’s Edgbaston. England are 72/3 at stumps of day 4, needing 536 runs to win and double their series lead to 2-0.
Long after Root had walked off the ground and action had continued, a BBC commentator on Test Match Special on Saturday, noted: “The delivery from Akash Deep — which we said was wide off the crease — his foot on the back crease is out. Looks like by about two inches. Maybe a little bit more. But comfortably. So his back foot, which needs to land within the line, just taps about two inches over the line. Not picked up!”
There are essentially two creases: the popping crease, which is the white line that runs perpendicular to the pitch. Then there are shorter lines next to the stumps that run parallel to the pitch. These lines are the return creases.
Some part of the bowler’s front foot has to land behind the popping crease. Failure to do so, results in a no ball, which is the most common way to concede a no ball during a game. But there is another infringement too, one that involves the bowler’s back foot: According to the MCC’s laws of the game (law 21.5), “For a delivery to be fair in respect of the feet, in the delivery stride (21.5.1) the bowler’s back foot must land within and not touching the return crease appertaining to his/her stated mode of delivery. (21.5.2) the bowler’s front foot must land with some part of the foot, whether grounded or raised – on the same side of the imaginary line joining the two middle stumps as the return crease described in 21.5.1, and – behind the popping crease.”
Interestingly, there have been instances where the front foot is allowed to cross the return crease. One examples of this was when Ravichandran Ashwin did it while bowling for Chennai Super Kings against Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League.
(This article has been revised to remove the name of Alison Mitchell, who was earlier erroneously identified as the BBC commentator)
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