South Africa\u2019s Twenty20 captain Faf du Plessis on Saturday welcomed the new cricket rule which allows free hits after all kinds of no-balls in limited-over games. The new rule will come in effect today when South Africa play Bangladesh in the first of the two Twenty20 internationals at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium. Besides the no-ball rule, the International Cricket Council last month approved several changes in one-day and Twenty20 formats, including restrictions on batting powerplay and field placements.
\nOnly the free-hit rule will apply in the Twenty20 game. Previously a free-hit was given only after a no-ball that resulted from foot fault.
\nDu Plessis said the rule would discourage bowlers from throwing down beamers which he believed could change the games completely in the crucial last overs.
\n\u2018I think it\u2019s a good rule,\u2019 Du Plessis said during a press conference on the eve of the game.
\n\u2018Games (are) won and lost when guys bowl beamers. Obviously when that rules comes in, it will make a huge difference,\u2019 he said.
\nDu Plessis said he was happy to kick off the Bangladesh tour with Twenty20 matches that mark the start of a long season for South Africa leading up to ICC World Twenty20 in India in March 2016.
\nBefore the World Twenty20, the Proteas will host New Zealand and England followed by an away series in India.
\n\u2018It\u2019s nice from a captain\u2019s point of view that the Twenty20 is more important this year,\u2019 said Du Plessis.
\n\u2018Last year\u2026 the focus was on ODI cricket. It\u2019s nice this year (that) all the big players are available for the games.\u2019
\nDu Plessis\u2019s counterpart Mashrafee bin Murtaza said Bangladesh were not thinking ahead too much but focusing on the challenges at hand.
\n\u2018Frankly, we are not thinking about World Twenty20 yet, not at least before these two matches,\u2019 he said.
\n\u2018There is plenty of time left for the (World T20) tournament. I don\u2019t see any reason for us to think about World Twenty20 before playing these matches.\u2019<\/p>\n

-With New Age<\/strong> input<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Africa\u2019s Twenty20 captain Faf du Plessis on Saturday welcomed the new cricket rule which allows free hits after all kinds of no-balls in limited-over games. The new rule will come in effect today when South Africa play Bangladesh in the first of the two Twenty20 internationals at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium. Besides the no-ball … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[209,489,4334,12387,2213,12074],"yoast_head":"\n