"Batters are well within their rights to come down to the pitch of the ball" says Ellyse Perry

A total of 15 penalty runs were awarded in the two matches at Guyana's Providence Stadium on Sunday due to batters' running on the protected area of the pitch. Ellyse Perry said the batters are more conscious of their footwork on their running on the protected area of the pitch.



The first ten penalty runs came in India's convincing win over Pakistan when after several warnings Pakistan batters didn't take that seriously and were penalised five runs in the 18th over after Bismah Maroof ran on the protected area. Then, on the last ball of the innings, Sidra Nawaz did the same mistake. India were given a 10-penalty run ahead of their chase of 134; which they reached one over to spare.



In the second match, Ireland were penalised with a five-run after captain Laura Delany did the mistake of running on the protected area of the pitch. Australia reached their target within 10 overs.



Both Australia and Ireland teams were warned by umpires ahead of the match. While talking about this, Perry said, "I'm hazarding a guess (they are doing this because) we should look after them so they keep playing fine."



"If girls aren't used to it, there's going to be a small adjustment period, but the fact they've been clear and harsh on it means it should be a quick result in terms of people not doing it," she further added. "We spoke about it briefly before we started, just to be mindful of it and aware of it."



Though Perry doesn't expect that this will change the approach of Australia's batters. "I think batters are well within their rights to come down to the pitch of the ball. I suppose it's just after you play that shot being particularly aware of where your following steps are, maybe that's something we can kind of practice a little bit at training. As I said, I don't think there was any issues with us tonight, so I don't see it being a big deal."



But Pakistan and Ireland players both teams have taken it as their responsibilities. "It's a part of the game and I know it's a silly mistake from us," Pakistan allrounder Nida Dar said in the post-match conference.



"We shouldn't do this thing and we should learn from this," said Ireland bowler Kim Garth. "We had seen this morning that there were 10 runs (penalised) so we were aware of that. It's a bit unusual, but I'm more surprised that we didn't learn from it and the same with Pakistan. To do it once is criminal, but to do it twice is a bit of a brain explosion and we definitely should have learned from it," she added.