Cricketing fans all over the nation are ecstatic and are in battle mode, as its that time of the year, when fan fights, challenges, predictions, and inter-state 'wars' become quite common with the IPL season.This edition began with a dead rubber involving CSK, last Saturday, and 5 matches have played thus far, but the most significant of them happens to be the fourth match that was played between Kings XI Punjab and Rajasthan Royals, though for unexpected reasons. The match has turned out to be an eye opener for many, inciting talks of 'spirit of the game' while also enlightening on the rules of the game, as Ashwin dismissed Jos Butler, who was set for a big match winning knock, by mankading.

So what is Mankading? This was a term that was coined after Indian All rounder Vinoo Mankad, who had ran out Australian player Bill Brown in the non striker's end, not once but twice, in a warmup match and in a test match in Sydney in 1947. Mankad ran out Brown after warning him several times not to cross the crease, and while Aussie media called it a disgraceful act, the legendary Don Bradman had supported this as it was within the rules.

Mankading has been a very common event over the years, and here are some of the famous mankading incidents. The first ever incident of mankading in ODIs was when Greg Chappell ran out Brian Luckhurst after warning twice, though England ultimately won the match. In 1993 Kapil Dev mankaded South African batsman Peter Kirsten who had been warned twice by Kapil and it was revealed later that it was coach Ajit Wadekar who suggested to mankad. In 1993, New Zealand skipper Dipak Patel had dismissed Zimbabwe's Grant Flower after several warnings. One instance of mankading resulting in a win was in the 2016 U-19 worldcup match between West Indies and Zimbabwe when Windies bowler Keamo Paul mankaded K Matigimu, with only three runs required for a win, but this wicket ultimately helped Windies register a victory.

This was not the first mankading incident for Jos Butler or Ashwin, as both were previously involved in mankading incidents. In the 2014 series between England and Srilanka, he was mankaded after several warnings by Sachitra Senanayake, and Ashwin had mankaded Lahiru Thirimanne in the 2011-12 CB Series where skipper Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar decided to withdraw the appeal to maintain the spirit of the game.

While these are incidents of mankading, there are also incidents when players decided not to mankad. In the 1987 worldcup Windies great Courtney Walsh opted out against mankading Salim Jaffar from Pakistan and stopped his delivery till the batsman realized he was out of crease. Chris Gayle avoided dismissing Eoin Morgan by mankading and warned him in his own humorous style. Bangladesh player Mohammad Rafique had decided not to runout Pakistan's Umar Gul, which resulted in their loss.

Many players like Shane Warne and Michael Vaughan have criticized Ashwin, Scott Styris had blamed the umpires, while Deam Jones and Harsha Bhogle had called it was well within the law, according to which, if the non striker is out of crease from the moment the ball comes into play to the instance the ball is expected to be released by the bowler, it is permissible for the bowler to run the batsman out.