Women's t20 Over League - 2014 Rules

9. In Divisions 1 and 2 both teams must bowl their 20 overs in less than 1 hour and 15 minutes (unless there is a good reason for the delay). If a team fails to do so they shall be penalised by subtracting the number of overs short-bowled in 1 hour and 15 minutes from the actual number bowled to determine the number of overs available to them while batting.

28. Overs are to be reduced by 2 (one per team) for every 7.5 minutes of playing time lost during the first innings and one over for every 3.75 minutes of playing time lost during the second innings.

It seems that both rules above are playing a huge part in this seasons Women’s t20 fixtures. Last night Leinster, Pembroke and YMCA not bowling their 20 overs within the 75 minute allotted time.

It’s interesting reading over the Men’s rules and regulations and seeing they have 80 minutes for the same format game. This t20 cricket rule imposes strict penalties on bowling teams for not completing their allotted 20 overs within 75 minutes.

As per this rule of t20 cricket, a deduction of 1 over will occur in the case were the bowling team does not begin their 20th over before 75 minutes. This rule of t20 cricket is intended to be strictly imposed since completing the t20 cricket match within 3 hours is one of the primary benefits and selling points of t20 cricket.

Last night at several games there were lots of very angry people. This on a beautiful evening with sunshine and no pressure to finish because of bad light. Leaving all in and watching the match robbed of enjoying an evenings cricket.

80 minutes for mens but 75 for women’s… perhaps ladies have shorter run up’s but do bowl a lot of wides. Not unusual to bowl 23/24+ overs per innings in ladies matches wides included.

It is rare for an innings to be completed in 75 mins and it seemed that last night was the night for all umpires to impose the penalty. Take a hypothetical situation where 3 ladies games take place on last night, great playing conditions, all close affairs all take longer than 75 mins for an innings to be completed but in only one has a penalty imposed.

Well it's clear that this is blatantly unfair. So next week's round of matches, are we going to see penalties imposed in all games that go over time or is just in some, so now it seems that umpires can decide the outcome of match rather than players.

So, this rule of t20 cricket once again emphasizes that the laws and rules of the cricket game are becoming more batsman-friendly at the expense of the hapless bowlers. I just hope that this rule of t20 cricket does not lead to more cricketing controversies.

Other rules and laws of t20 cricket are designed to make t20 cricket more exciting and add to the 'fun' factor of a typical t20 cricket match. Food for thought!