Stuart Law, the US cricket team coach, admitted that most players in his team are unfamiliar with the new ‘stop-clock’ rules as T20 World Cup co-hosts became the first side to be docked five runs in accordance with the new rules on Wednesday.
The penalty, however, did not influence the course of events as Stuart Law maintained that India controlled their run chase at that time
As one step towards speeding up play, this sanction has been introduced by ICC. A team gets a penalty if they take more than a minute between overs even after two warnings.
At the beginning of 16th over US were penalized and instead of 35 runs off 30 balls needed to reach their target of 111 runs; India now needed only five less runs in same number of balls played.
“We have had some warnings earlier in matches and it is something we talk about just try to get through those overs quicker,” noted former Australian international Law during his post-match press conference. “We’re only a fledgling team. There’s plenty to learn. There’s not just the cricket aspect of the game of cricket but there’s all other intricacies that need to be embedded. It’s a rule that’s only just come in.”
“Most players here wouldn’t have heard about it before we came into Bangladesh series or Canada series early this year,” added Law
Law said despite being fined five runs, it would not have affected who won Group A which India did beating United States by seven wickets with ten balls remaining thus progressing to super eights stage.
“It wasn’t going to affect outcomes of games,” added Law “I mean players know what it is but if you haven’t had a chance for playing it for quite sometime then its hard getting it into your mind”
However still United States can go through for Super Eight though they lost this match. They will progress to next stage if they win or draw their final group match with Ireland on Friday.