A brutal Marcus Stoinis half-century turned the game against Adelaide in the Melbourne Stars’ favour, but the Strikers believe it was an innings that could have been stopped before it started.
Batting first, the Stars were 2-70 in the tenth over at Adelaide Oval on New Year’s Eve when Stoinis strode to the crease.
The 33-year-old shrugged off a poor start to the season with a jaw-dropping innings of 74 runs from 35 balls where he took down Golden Arm leader Henry Thornton with four sixes and a four in a disastrous 29-run over for the home side.
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It was an awesome display of power hitting in an eight-run win, but the pedestrian manner of Stoinis’ arrival at the crease riled Adelaide.
In a bid to keep the game moving quickly, BBL rules state that an incoming batter must be ready to face up to the bowler within 75 seconds of the last batter’s dismissal.
The batter must stand to the side of the pitch and allow the bowler, in this case Wes Agar, a free shot at the stumps if he’s not ready to face up to the bowler in that time.
“He’s a top-class player, but to be honest I was at cover for his first ball and I’m pretty certain he timed out,” Strikers’ batter Adam Hose said of Stoinis.
“(He had) 75 seconds and he wasn’t ready.
“So, there was a bit of confusion there with the umpires.
“We were all appealing … I’m not quite sure what happened there.
“I’m pretty certain his time was up.
“The umpires have been pretty hot on me for the last couple of games with getting to the crease.
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“It’s just one of those things, Trent Boult bowled a couple of brilliant overs there and he (Stoinis) won them the game with the bat, so well played.
“He’d faced his first ball by the time we managed to get around the umpire and ask the question, but I just hope that if it is the rule that we can play by it.”
Stoinis could be heard pleading his case to the umpire on the broadcast, saying that the fielders were appealing for him to be ready to face up while they were still moving.
Stoinis said that he wouldn’t appeal in the same situation if he was in the field.
“I checked centre (stump), got there, and was standing off because I saw the field moving,” Stoinis said.
“But I actually didn’t even know that I had to stand there regardless.”
And it wasn’t the first time, according to the big hitter.
“There were a few times there where the fielders were moving when we were taking guard and we were ready,” Stoinis said.
“My understanding was that while the field is moving … I’m not going to stand there until I can see (what the final fielding set-up looks like).
“Apparently, you have to be facing up.
“There was a dead ball with Hilts (Hilton Cartwright), they appealed for that, but the field was moving so it ended up being a dead ball.”
Stoinis said that there needs to be a ‘commonsense’ approach to the new batter time-out rule.
