Ravichandran Ashwin is in the news yet again, for the second time, and for the same reason, Mankading the non-striker. Ashwin, the spinner, also the skipper of Kings XI Punjab, ran out Jos Buttler of Rajasthan Royals.

Buttler was dispatching Punjab bowlers to all over the park and when Ashwin saw him dragging his bat out of the crease before the ball is bowled, he blew away the bails, albeit without warning the “culprit”.

Even as the brouhaha over the incident continues, we try to simplify the technical aspects behind the manner of dismissal and why it is called Mankading.

What is Mankading

Mankading is running out the non-striker, i.e. the batsman who is at the bowler’s end. If the bowler notices that the non-striker has left the crease/ground well before the ball is bowled, they can dislodge the bails and the latter is out as per the rule books. But then, this kind of dismissal is widely considered against the spirit of the game.

This is exactly what happened on Monday at the Sawai Mansingh Stadium in Jaipur.

Why is it called Mankading

Immensely innovative that Australians are, the Australian Press invented the term in 1947, when India toured Australia. India bowler Vinoo Mankad had dismissed Australian batsman Bill Brown, not once but twice, by removing the bails when Brown stepped out of the crease. This did not go down well with the Aussie media who coined the term Mankading, after the bowler.

Instances of Mankading

Tests:

Bill Brown by Vinoo Mankad, Australia v India, Sydney, 1947–1948

Ian Redpath by Charlie Griffith, Australia v West Indies, Adelaide, 1968–1969

Derek Randall by Ewen Chatfield, England v New Zealand, Christchurch, 1977–1978

Sikander Bakht by Alan Hurst, Pakistan v Australia, Perth, 1978–1979

One Day Internationals:

Brian Luckhurst by Greg Chappell, England v Australia, Melbourne, 1974–1975

Grant Flower by Dipak Patel, Zimbabwe v New Zealand, Harare, 1992–1993

Peter Kirsten by Kapil Dev, South Africa v India, Port Elizabeth, 1992–1993

Jos Buttler by Sachithra Senanayake, England v Sri Lanka, Birmingham, 2014

Twenty20 Internationals

Mark Chapman by Aamir Kaleem, Hong Kong v Oman, 2016 Asia Cup Qualifier, 2016

(With agency inputs)