Twitter reacts to bizarre Nine-feet mark rule saving Cheteshwar Pujara from LBW

Bizarrely, Cheteshwar Pujara tried to play an aggressive shot stepping down the mark to the bowling of left-arm spinner Shahbaz Ahmed. While his attempted shot did not result in him getting the bat on to the ball, it resulted in the ball thudding his pad. To the naked eye, from the replays, it looked like the review was going to be successful for Bengal. However, to their dismay, the decision did not go in their favour. 

And, further, to their shock, it was not because it was outside the line or because the ball was not hitting him inside the line. It was because of a simple rule that is in the Indian domestic rule-book. The rule states that if the impact is beyond the nine-feet mark line that is marked with the chalk-crease lines on either end, the decision will remain not-out. 

The simple reason behind the rule is that - without a complete DRS system at their disposal, it would be highly difficult to judge if the ball is hitting the stumps or not. And, for those reasons, Pujara remained not-out despite being the impact being in line. 

On the other hand, the Bengal players were clearly dejected with the decision as they crowded around the on-field umpire K N Ananthapadmanabhan with the third-umpire S Ravi clearly stating that it will remain ‘not-out.’ 

Moreso, Pujara stayed, Bengal retained their review and bombarded the umpire with questions on the decision. At the end after an eventful three and a half minutes, Pujara was still continuing his stay at the crease, with the nine-feet rule saving him.

Here's how people on Twitter reacted on the incident