Dhoni-Mustafizur collision a test of rule interpretations

A collision between MS Dhoni and debutant Mustafizur Rahman during Bangladesh's victory over India will test the umpires' interpretation of events and the way ICC reacts to it. In the 25th over of India's chase, Dhoni ran into Mustafizur while taking a single, and appeared to shove him out of his way with his forearm. On the surface it is worthy of sanction under the ICC code of conduct, but it is necessary to examine the circumstances around it before deciding if it was "inappropriate and deliberate" contact.

Mustafizur is a left-arm quick. In the 25th over of India's innings, he bowled from over the wicket to Dhoni, who pushed the ball to mid-off and set off for a single. Mustafizur didn't go straight in his follow-through, ambled across the pitch - neither to field the ball nor to get back to collect a throw - then appeared to glance at where the batsmen were and then moved ever so slightly into the line Dhoni was travelling. To his right Dhoni had Suresh Raina - the batting partner at the time - squeezing him, and if Dhoni was to run around from the left, he would risking running on the pitch and a run-out because of a bigger, circuitous route. Dhoni held his hand out immediately after running into Mustafizur, but also looked complainingly at the umpire. The bowler had to go off the field, and thus could bowl only 9.2 overs on a smashing debut, still managing to take five wickets with a well-disguised off-cutter.

"Well, I thought he will move, he thought I will move and both of us ended up colliding because I had to take the closest path possible getting to the other end," Dhoni said of the incident. "If I am going around the bowler, more often than not they'll get the batsman out. So either I should have moved to the right or he should have moved to the left but both of us thought maybe the other guy will, but we ended up with a, what you can say, a typical kind of a street clash. Thankfully he didn't get injured, and I didn't get injured."

Dhoni didn't suggest Mustafizur was trying to gain any advantage by coming in his way, and on his part Mustafizur communicated through the Bangladesh media manager that he should have got out of the way. It is quite possible that the 19-year-old is not aware of it, but he does seem to have a habit of doing this. Earlier in the innings, again with a single to mid-off, Mustafizur went from his over-the-wicket mark across the pitch, seemed to glance at the batsman, and then found himself in the way of Rohit Sharma. This resulted in a softer collision, but Rohit raised his finger immediately to let Mustafizur know he was in the wrong.

The interpretation of the umpires here is important and interesting. They have obviously not seen Mustafizur as being in violation of Law 42, which deals with unfair play. Law 42.5 says: "(a) It is for either one of the umpires to decide whether any distraction or obstruction is wilful or not.

(b) If either umpire considers that a fielder has caused or attempted to cause such a distraction or obstruction, he shall immediately call and signal Dead ball and inform the other umpire of the reason for the call."

There are other penalties involved, including five extra runs and the accrual of runs already completed and initiated, and the batsmen's being allowed to decide who will take strike, but the key point here is that such a judgment has to be made immediately and on the field. That they didn't make any such decision during the game suggests they didn't consider it a wilful distraction or obstruction, which makes it even more intriguing as to how the match referee sees Dhoni's act. If, in the view of the umpires, the bowler didn't wilfully obstruct or distract the batsman, was the batsman within his rights to shove the bowler out of the way so as to keep running in a straight line? That Raina was squeezing Dhoni from his right could be a consideration, too.

It's now up to the Playing Control Team - the match referee and the four umpires - to decide if there needs to be any sanction, but this is not the only incident they will be interested in. Bangladesh fielders tried to run Shikhar Dhawan out and appealed for it when the batsman was walking off having seen the hastily raised finger of the umpire Rod Tucker while in fact the wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim had dropped the catch. Dhoni's eventual dismissal drew an angry reaction, which is likely to have resulted from the collision. Later in the innings, the umpires took captain Mashrafe Mortaza and Tamim Iqbal aside and were seen making "keep-quiet" gestures with their fingers on their lips. There was also an instance when the umpires had to tell off the Indian substitutes, who made quite a few visits to the middle, sometimes only with a message.