IPL 2019: R Ashwin ‘mankading’ Jos Buttler leaves Twitter divided over ‘spirit of the game’

Rajasthan Royals opener Jos Buttler was run-out in a controversial manner while at the non-striker’s end during the Indian Premier League match against Kings XI Punjab by skipper R Ashwin in Jaipur on Monday.

Buttler became the first victim of a dismissal popularly known as ‘Mankading’ in the history of IPL as Royals lost a thrilling match by 14 runs.

With Buttler going strong at 69 off 43 balls while chasing 185 runs, Ashwin ran out the Rajasthan Royals opener when he backed up too far. As per the laws of the game, the third umpire declared Buttler out but such a dismissal had always raised eyebrows in the game, perhaps unfairly so.

As expected Buttler seemed furious and had a heated exchange with Ashwin before leaving the field. The dismissal is sure to create a big controversy going into the 12th edition of the IPL. Rajasthan were 108/1 in 12.4 overs at that stage but finished on 170/9 in 20 overs.

The dismissal is referred to as Mankading, after former India all-rounder Vinoo Mankad. During the second test of the tour at Sydney, Mankad became a part of one never-ending controversy of world cricket that gave birth to a term called ‘Mankading’ when he dismissed Bill Brown at the non-striker’s end.

Here’s what the latest laws of cricket says about the runout at the non-striker’s end, according to the official broadcaster Star Sports.

Among Indians, it was Kapil Dev who had mankaded Peter Kirsten of South Africa during the 1992-93 series and in Indian domestic cricket Railways’ spinner Murali Karthik had mankaded Sandipan Das of Bengal during a Ranji Trophy match.

The Ashwin-Buttler incident sent Twitter into a frenzy late on Monday night with strong views on both sides of the topic.

Strong criticism for Ashwin

But, seeing as Ashwin technically did not break any rules, there was support for the KXIP captain as well.

Ultimately though, this is the clincher.