Srinagar: A heated debate has raged over a bizarre Marvel Stadium Hit the Roof and Get Six Runs rule after ball twice hits roof during match between Melbourne Renegades and Melbourne Stars on Saturday.
The shots that normally either would have been simply few runs or batter getting caught , fetched team 12 runs.
Remarkably, despite conceding two sixes in this manner, it didn’t cost the Renegades the match as the Stars capitulated in the second half of their run chase as Fawad Ahmed, Kane Richardson, Tom Rogers and Will Sutherland closed out the last four overs for just 14 runs to get the home side over the line in a final ball thriller.
It was Joe Clarke who to hit the roof first in the third over of the chase off Sutherland, awarded a six as the ball ricocheted around the ceiling structure before landing at square leg inside the fielding restriction circle.
Beau Webster was the next beneficiary in the 16th over with his attempt to clear the leg side boundary off Rogers going straight up to hit the roof and landing only metres from the pitch.
“if the ball having been struck by the bat hits any part of the stadium roof structure, retractable or fixed, a boundary six will be scored,” Sutherland was quoted by cricket.com.au.
Initially, when the competition begun in 2011, any ball that hit the Marvel Stadium roof was ruled a dead ball, but it was swiftly changed in 2013 to differentiate between the retractable and fixed parts of the roof when Renegades veteran Aaron Finch was denied a certain six that hit one of the fixed beams.
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It has since been simplified to the current rule that a ball hitting any part of a stadium’s roof is deemed a six, which Finch himself benefited from in January 2014, also in a Melbourne derby against the Stars.
“Definitely can it after they had two go their way,” Sutherland said.
“It was even for both sides but I’d like to think it would be dead ball going forward.”
“The rule is what it is, it’s the same for both teams so I don’t think you can complain,” Aaron Tinch said.
“But it would have been two dismissals. Joe Clarke in the third over, that makes a big difference in the game”.
But regardless of the rule, Finch said cricket matches at Marvel Stadium were better with the roof closed.
“There’s so many buildings around, there’s a lot of light that comes in and if you’re fielding over (the Port Phillip Bay) side of the ground, it can be really difficult to see off the seats as the sun is setting,” he said.
“It was still hot (with the roof closed), but not unbearable, I’ve played in worse, definitely.”
Opposition skipper Adam Zampa said it was a bizarre rule but didn’t know how else it could be adjudicated, apart from giving the fielding team a chance to catch in one-handed off the roof, which retired Aussie great Mark Waugh also suggested in commentary during the Fox Cricket broadcast.
Waugh said there was no way a ball hitting the roof should be an automatic six runs.
“It’s cost (the Renegades) 12 runs which is just wrong,” he said.
“At the minimum, it should be a dead ball. It should not be six runs.
“Twelve runs is a big difference in this game, let alone the fact that they would’ve been out.”