The controversy is coming because motives are being questioned here.
The rule says the bowlers can mankad the non striker between
the moment the ball comes into play and
the instant when the bowler would normally have been expected to release the ball (in other words, the bowler is loaded and about to release the ball).
Butler thought Ashwin was loaded and reached the moment of release and thus came out of his crease.
Ashwin is claiming that he was not loaded to release the ball, and thus mankad was not premeditated, but rather instinctive.
Umpire saw batsmen out during mankad. He is not there to question the motive of a bowler, and thus went with the letter of the law, legally ruled it OUT.
As for Butler or any non striking batsman, DO NOT come out of your crease until the ball has been released from the hand. Your judgment of bowler being loaded may not match with that of the umpire or the bowler, so be safe.
The Rajasthan coach gave the concluding remark - no point judging the motive of Ashwin, fans and the cricket world will decide for themselves:
Quote:
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“I think R Ashwin’s actions tonight speak for him and represent him. When I looked in the eyes of his teammates I’m not sure if it represented his teammates,” Upton said after the game. “I think we’ll leave it up to the IPL fans to decide if that’s the kind of thing they want to see and we’ll leave it up to the cricket world to judge Ashwin’s actions tonight.”
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