Jadeja becomes third IPL batter to get out obstructing the field

Chennai Super Kings (CSK) suffered a rare dismissal on May 12 (Sunday) against Rajasthan Royals at the Chepauk. Ravindra Jadeja was given out ‘Obstructing the field’ when he changed direction while completing his run after glancing at the wicketkeeper. 

It was the fifth delivery of the 16th over bowled by Avesh Khan. It was a shortish delivery outside off, and Jadeja used his angled bat to direct the ball towards the fielder at third man. He completed the first run easily, but when he returned for the second, Gaikwad denied the second and sent him back. 

Jadeja, while turning, took a peak at Samson and then took a large radius to turn. This change in direction while returning to the crease put him straight in line with the stumps.

Samson collected the throw from the fielder cleanly and then threw it at the other end. But Jadeja had already obstructed the stumps by changing his running line. Samson’s throw struck Jadeja on his back.

RR appealed for the dismissal instantly, and umpire Anil Chaudhary took his time. However, he observed correctly that Jadeja took a larger radius to turn and obstructed the stumps while doing that. After that, he had no qualms about showing “OUT” on the screen.

With this dismissal, Jadeja adds to an unfortunate list of batters who’ve been out obstructing the field in the IPL. Earlier, Yusuf Pathan (vs Pune Warriors India, 2013) and Amit Mishra (vs Sunrisers Hyderabad, 2019) have been given out as ‘obstructing the field’. This was only the 20th such occurrence in the entirety of T20 history.