The United States became the first team to be penalised under the game’s stop-clock rules but coach Stuart Law said it did not play a part in his team’s seven-wicket loss to India at the T20 World Cup on Wednesday.
Using stop clocks to regulate the time taken between overs was made mandatory earlier this year in an effort to speed up over rates.
Fielding sides must start a new over within a minute of completing the previous one and a five-run penalty is imposed after a third such failure. Chasing 111 for victory, India were 76-3 after 15 overs when they were awarded five runs in the low-scoring contest after the US fell foul of the rule.
“We had a few warnings in earlier games, and it’s something we do talk about to get through faster between the overs,” Law told reporters.
“I think that 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 also the other intricacies that need to be embedded.
“It’s a rule that’s only just come in. A lot of our players wouldn’t have heard about it before we played in the Bangladesh series or the Canada series earlier this year. So, look, it’s something that we need to address, we’ll sit down and talk about, but we can improve it, yeah.”
Law said the umpires had said they had warned the USA players twice before imposing the penalty.
“Players know the rule, but it’s something that if you haven’t played with it for a long time, it’s very difficult to have it embedded in your brain,” Law said. “So, the information coming from the umpires was, they were given two clear warnings, then it’s up to the players to respond. And we didn’t respond fast enough, we didn’t do it well enough, and that’s something we can address.” The extra runs somewhat eased the pressure on Suryakumar Yadav and Shivam Dube, who then accelerated to guide India home, and into the Super Eight stage, with 10 balls to spare.
“I don’t think it affected the outcome of the game,” former Australia batter Law said.
“Five runs wasn’t going to affect the outcome of the game, so I don’t think it rattled them. No, I thought we stuck to our guns, we fought hard, we fought to the death.”
Tournament co-hosts US pulled off the biggest upset of the tournament so far when they beat former champions Pakistan and are second in the group behind India.