What is a stop clock penalty and why were USA punished against India?

The stop clock rule was trialed in international matches from December of last year and was made a permanent fixture by the ICC in international T20 cricket at the end of its trial period in April 2024.

The rule is used to regulate the time elapsed between overs, with teams having 60 seconds in which to start the next over.

A bowling team will receive two warnings if they go over time during their fielding innings, and will be handed a five-run penalty for every further violation.

And USA became the first team to receive a run penalty when they made a third violation during the low-scoring contest with India at the Nassau County International Stadium in New York.

“Three times they’ve exceeded the sixty seconds they have allotted to get through between overs,” commentator Ebony Rainford-Brent said. “So they’ve been going slow, moving slow, maybe overthinking due to the pressure in this game.

“Maybe sometimes that’s the difference between two sides. India have been there and done that at so many tournaments. Aaron Jones is living out his best at the moment, two wins, kind of up there at the top of the group with four points and hoping, maybe overthinking about strategy. You can’t afford that in this format.”

USA were well on the backfoot when hit by the penalty in the match, with India on 76/3 and requiring 35 in the last five overs to wrap up victory.

And they did just that, with Suryakumar Yadav hitting an unbeaten 50* to steer India to victory and the Super 8 stage, aided by those extra five runs.

“It’s a new rule that’s come up,” former India international and ICC commentator Dinesh Karthik explained.

“There’s been a lot of pressure on the bowling team captain – India just got away with it in the game against Pakistan, where they had two faults and the third one would have been a strike. But now America have definitely done this to themselves.”