MrPrez
International Debutant
It depends what constitutes delivery of the ball. Technically the arm moving from the hip up and over is the process of delivery. So this is the end of the delivery process. He would presumably have been in the crease at the beginning of the delivery of the ball.No one has sympathy with a bowler who has his foot half a centimetre over the crease, or a batsman half a centimetre out of his ground when stumped. The rule on leaving your crease is just as clear cut, and the fact it's easy to do doesn't make it more legal.
Nah. If he's out of the crease in those pictures, which he is, he must have left the crease at an earlier stage, i.e. in breach of the rules.
The alternative interpretation is that delivery is at the point of ball release. But I don't think either is particularly clarified anywhere.
Either way, yet again, the point is not whether Buttler even stole yards in those pictures - it's the events of the Ashwin delivery, which were completely unacceptable in terms of the spirit of the game. When he pulled out of his action Buttler was still in the crease. I have no doubt that Buttler does sometimes actually steal yards - or has at least done so in the past. But this particular delivery was unacceptable as a Mankad.