Cape Town, Jan 5: Star cricketer Sachin Tendulkar could not bat at his usual No.4 position in the batting order during India's second innings since he had been absent from the field during South Africa's essay. Tendulkar was absent from the field for 18 minutes at the end of South Africa's first innings yesterday and according to the law, he could resume playing again only after the same amount of time had elapsed in India's innings. But India lost their first two wickets within 12 minutes of start of play, rendering Tendulkar ineligible for batting at his usual position.
Cricket South Africa media officer Gordon Templeton said match referee Roshan Mahanama explained that Tendulkar was ready to bat at his usual position but he could not be allowed into the ground before 18 minutes. "The match officials said Sachin could only come out to bat at 10.48 a.m," Templeton said. With Tendulkar not permitted to bat, Sourav Ganguly was asked to pad up instead which resulted in a six-minute delay between the fall of India's second wicket and the arrival of the next batsman.
The next batsman is required to come to the crease within three minutes of the fall of a wicket, but in this case the "timed out" rule was not applied because the fourth official, South African umpire Murray Brown, could only make it to the Indian dressing room the ball before (second man out) Wasim Jaffer was out. "According to the rules, Sourav Ganguly could have been timed out but because of special circumstances in that the fourth official got to the dressing room late, he was not timed out," Templeton said. (Agencies)
