‘Within the rules’: Skippers back controversial BBL move

But while the Sydney Sixers men in the middle for the gripping final ball called it “bizarre” no-one involved thought the back-to-back champions, now headed for s showdown in the final with the Perth Scorchers, broke any rules. Sixers coach Greg Shipperd’s bold call to retire batsman Jordan Silk, who injured his hamstring while fielding, as his team needed two runs off the final ball at the SCG drew the ire of plenty. A batter is permitted to retire at any point for any reason, and doesn’t even have to be hurt to come off the field. But commentators and social media both declared the move, with last-minute inclusion Jay Lenton coming in to run for the final ball, was not in the spirit of the game, including former Test star Mark Waugh. “It’s within the rules, but it’s probably not in the spirit of the game,” he said. Siddle charged to the umpires to express his displeasure at the time but conceded post match it was within the rules. “At the time you run up and you think, you know, he hurt it when he was fielding so there‘s an issue,” he said. “But you can retire blokes. At the end of the day you can retire, it’s not actually a big issue. As soon as I brought it up with the umpires, obviously I was disappointed at the time. But it’s just a retirement isn’t it? It happens a lot more than we expect.“It’s just sometimes it happens at crucial times.”Silk had come out three balls and limped through for a single off his first delivery then hobbled back for a second from the penultimate ball almost using his bat as a crutch.Lenton, who was only called into the side 24 hours earlier after regular wicketkeeper Josh Philippe contracted Covid, said the final over was utterly frantic and there was no issues post-match. “It was a bit bizarre, to be honest. I think the rule was you can only bat nine with a runner, so there was still a couple more [wickets] before that happened,” he said. “Then obviously Sean (Abbott) got out, Ben (Dwarshuis) got sent in, Ben got run out and I’m standing there saying ‘Silky, go’. Then all of a sudden it’s ‘get him off, get him off’ and I’m running. It was pretty frantic, and it sums up the day.“I don’t believe anything was untoward in that circumstance. He’s got a pretty bad hamstring, and it happened in the game – he didn’t bring it in. It was pretty frantic at the time so I haven’t had any time to reflect on it, but I don’t think there was anything untoward.“I think they were talking about what to bowl in that final over. I saw Peter come over to the umpire and question it, and he seemed to be fine when I walked past. There was nothing mentioned out there for that last minute.”Match-winner hayden Kerr, who faced the final ball which he hit for four to secure victory, called it a “good play”. “I had no idea, and I didn’t know what was happening when he went off,” Kerr said after his extraordinary 98 not out with the bat.“But it makes sense because he did his hammy during the game, and he did it quite badly. I remember when I was walking out, we were told that we were granted a runner for Silky, but obviously the runner didn’t walk out with him at the time.“I thought it was a good play [for Silk to initially come out] because he’s a brilliant batsman, and we needed ball-striking at that stage.”Sixers skipper Moises Henriques, who injured a calf himself, defended the controversial move.“They are clearly within the rules of the game,” he said. “Unfortunately we had a guy go down with a hamstring, one of the fittest guys in the league. Probably something to do with our schedule and the five flights in eight days and so many back-to-back games. We’re trying to back up with guys who are carrying little injuries...he normally bats five. “The fact he’s gone in to bat at eight, I mean I think we’re sacrificing enough as it is.” Via news.com.au — Australia’s leading news site https://www.news.com.au