WATCH: Ricky Ponting, Sourav Ganguly Engage in Heated Argument With Umpire as DC Embark on Chase Against RR

It was merely more heartbreak for the returning Rishabh Pant and his Delhi Capitals side, as they slumped to yet another defeat, this time to the Rajasthan Royals, last night.

In a fixture filled with moments of flaring tensions, it seemed as if the same had spilled over onto the coaches as well, as DC’s Ricky Ponting and Sourav Ganguly were also caught in the throes of the moment.

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Tempers were high and tensions arose with Ponting and Ganguly going on to have a spirited talk with the fourth umpire early on into DC’s innings.

The instance occurred right after Delhi Capitals began their chase, two balls into Boult’s first over.

The long story short is that there was a bit of a misunderstanding regarding the number of overseas players that took to the field for RR.

Right at the beginning of the second innings, Royals brought on Nandre Burger for Shimron Hetmeyer as their Impact Player in order to strengthen their bowling line-up.

The important thing to keep in mind here is that even with the substitution, the Royals had only three overseas players in the field.

But, two balls in, the Royals opted for yet another substitute, as they called in Rovman Powell for Shubham Dubey, making it four overseas players for them. And this incited a fiery reaction from DC coach Ricky Ponting, who went on to argue with the officials about how RR could suddenly field four players.

The fourth umpire then took a sheet of paper and went up to Ponting to make his case. What RR pulled off was all by the rules as they only played 3 foreign players, so they can make an Impact Sub as their fourth foreigner.

As per the overseas playing conditions, rule 1.2.5 states that no team can include more than 4 overseas players in their team. However, rule 1.2.6 states that in case all 4 players have been named in the XI, an overseas player can enter the fray only as a substitute for another one.  But, the catch here is that if in the case any team plays with less than 4 overseas players in their starting XI, then they are more than allowed to sub in an overseas player as their Impact Player for anyone in the field.

The official rule reads: “If the team names less than 4 Overseas players in its starting XI, Overseas players may only enter the field of play as substitute fielders to the extent that by doing so, they do not take the total number of Overseas players representing that team on the field to more than 4.”

So, Ponting and Ganguly’s flares of temper were just a result of misunderstanding and the tensions getting the better of them in the heat of the moment.