How was Matheesha Pathirana allowed to bowl his second over - within the dying overs no much less - in Chennai Super Kings' qualifier against Gujarat Titans regardless of being off the sector for greater than eight minutes? Even as Chennai Super Kings went on to win the match by 15 runs, this query induced plenty of intrigue.

According to the IPL enjoying situations, a participant who leaves the sector to deal with an inside harm - or for another cause - for greater than eight minutes must be on the sector for the same period on his return earlier than he's allowed to bowl. It couldn't be confirmed what niggle, if any, Pathirana had when he left the sector. A question with CSK to test on the rationale Pathirana left the sector has to date gone unanswered.

He had delivered his first over - the twelfth - which went for ten runs, together with 4 wides. At some level after that, he left the sector. On his return, he was tasked with bowling the sixteenth over. Titans, on the stage, have been 102 for six, needing an additional 71 runs for victory.

ESPNcricinfo has realized that the match officers knowledgeable Dhoni at that time that Pathirana needed to wait just a few extra minutes earlier than he might bowl once more. Dhoni, it's understood, acknowledged the enjoying situations, however argued that he had no choice however to bowl Pathirana.

His three different frontline bowling choices - Ravindra Jadeja, Maheesh Theekshana and Deepak Chahar - had accomplished their 4 overs. Only Tushar Deshpande had two overs left other than Pathirana's three. Moeen Ali, the one different bowling choice, had not bowled in any respect, and it's realized that Dhoni instructed the umpires that he could not afford to bowl an offspinner towards the 2 right-hand batters - Vijay Shankar and Rashid Khan - within the center.

The minutes ticked by. Dhoni was reminded that he and CSK stood to incur each the monetary penalty for a sluggish over-rate and the in-match penalty of getting solely 4 fielders outdoors the 30-yard circle if the twentieth over didn't start by the designated cut-off time. It is known that the Titans' batters, too, checked with the match officers concerning the delay.

Eventually, Pathirana was allowed to bowl, after 4 minutes of discussions between Dhoni and the umpires, which took care of the time he was out for. He gave away 13 runs in his second over, then picked Vijay Shankar's wicket in his subsequent over, which went for 4 runs and likewise noticed Darshan Nalkande run out.

The delay ended up not hurting CSK financially, although they suffered the in-match penalty having began the 20tth over after the cut-off time.

The query stays as as to whether the umpires thought of penalising CSK below the unfair-play legislation, Law 41.9, which issues time-wasting by the fielding facet. As per this rule, the umpires must problem a primary and ultimate warning to the fielding captain in the event that they really feel there may be deliberate time-wasting in the course of the course of an over. A repeat of the identical offence will consequence within the batting facet being awarded 5 penalty runs and the bowler being suspended. Enforcing the time-wasting rule, although, is left fully to the discretion of the umpires.

There stays the chance that different groups will take a look at this incident and it might develop into one thing of a pattern sooner or later.

Nagraj Gollapudi is news editor at ESPNcricinfo