Mohinder Amarnath
Mohinder Amarnath (pictured in 2012) is the only player to be dismissed for both handling the ball and obstructing the field in international cricket.[1]

In cricket, a player is dismissed when they lose their wicket. At this point, the batsman must discontinue batting and leave the field permanently. A batsman can be dismissed in a number of ways, the most common being bowled, caught, leg before wicket (LBW), stumped, run out and hit wicket. Much rarer are hit the ball twice, obstructing the field, retired out and timed out. These are regarded by analysts as unusual ways of dismissals in cricket, where the bowler is denied any credit.[a][3][4] Handled the ball was a previously a separate method of dismissal, now incorporated into obstructing the field. As of November 2023, there have been twenty-eight instances of players being dismissed unusually in international cricket: ten in Test cricket, twelve in One Day Internationals (ODIs), four in Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is) and two in Women's One Day International cricket.

Test cricket

In Tests, England batsman Leonard Hutton was the first player to be dismissed for obstructing the field, while playing against South Africa in August 1951.[5][b] Between January 1957 and March 2001, six different players were dismissed for handling the ball, the most common form of an unusual dismissal.[6] Sri Lanka cricketers Marvan Atapattu and Mahela Jayawardene are the only Test players to be dismissed retired out, when playing against Bangladesh in 2001. Sri Lanka's captain, Sanath Jayasuriya, received strong criticism for the team's act.[7][8]

Russell Endean, the South African wicketkeeper, was involved in both of the first two unusual dismissials. First came his involvement in Len Hutton's "obstructing the field" dismissal: Endean was prevented from attempting a catch, when Hutton used his bat to prevent the ball landing on his stumps after he had edged it up in the air. (Guarding his stumps being the only circumstance in which a ball can legally be hit twice: so Hutton came close to that form of dismissal too, if the umpire had ruled that the ball was not in fact headed towards the wicket.) Six years later, in similar circumstances after edging the ball up in the air and seeing it drop towards his stumps, Endean used his free hand instead of his bat to intercept the ball, and was given out "handled ball". The second "handled ball" dismissal was more unfortunate: Andrew Hilditch, at the non-striker's end, picked up the stationary ball to hand it back to a fielder, the only instance of a non-striker suffering this dismissal. All subsequent instances of "handled the ball" have been more similar to Endean's, with a batsman using his free hand to guard his stumps.

In December 2023, Mushfiqur Rahim became the first person in test cricket to be dismissed for obstructing the field since the rule for handling the ball was subsumed into this law in October 2017.[9]

No. Player Dismissal Runs Team Opposition Venue Match Date Result
1 Leonard Hutton Obstructing the field 27  England  South Africa The Oval, London, England 5th Test 16 August 1951 Won[10]
2 Russell Endean Handled the ball 3  South Africa  England Newlands Cricket Ground, Cape Town, South Africa 2nd Test 1 January 1957 Lost[11]
3 Andrew Hilditch Handled the ball 29  Australia  Pakistan W.A.C.A. Ground, Perth, Australia 2nd Test 24 March 1979 Won[12]
4 Mohsin Khan Handled the ball 58  Pakistan  Australia National Stadium, Karachi, Pakistan 1st Test 22 September 1982 Won[13]
5 Desmond Haynes Handled the ball 55  West Indies  India Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai, India 4th Test 24 November 1983 Drawn[14]
6 Graham Gooch Handled the ball 133  England  Australia Old Trafford Cricket Ground, Manchester, England 1st Test 3 June 1993 Lost[15]
7 Steve Waugh Handled the ball 47  Australia  India M. A. Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai, India 3rd Test 18 March 2001 Lost[16]
8 Marvan Atapattu Retired out 201  Sri Lanka  Bangladesh Sinhalese Sports Club Ground, Colombo, Sri Lanka 2nd Test 6 September 2001 Won[17]
9 Mahela Jayawardene Retired out 150  Sri Lanka  Bangladesh Sinhalese Sports Club Ground, Colombo, Sri Lanka 2nd Test 6 September 2001 Won[17]
10 Michael Vaughan Handled the ball 64  England  India M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore, India 3rd Test 19 December 2001 Drawn[18]
11 Mushfiqur Rahim Obstructing the field 35  Bangladesh  New Zealand Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur, Bangladesh 2nd Test 6 December 2023 Lost[19]

Men's One Day International cricket

In men's ODIs, eleven players have been dismissed on twelve occasions in an unusual manner. The first such occasion was when India's Mohinder Amarnath was given out for handling the ball, against Australia in February 1986. The following year, Pakistan cricketer Rameez Raja became the first player to be given out for obstructing the field in ODIs: with the match lost, but himself on a score of 98, he attempted two runs off the final ball and used his bat to deliberately block a run-out attempt when going for the second run that would have got him a century. In 1989, Amarnath was dismissed in a similar fashion, kicking the ball away to prevent a run-out attempt, while playing in a match against Sri Lanka, thus becoming the first player to be dismissed by two different unusual methods.[5] Obstructing the field has been the most common method of unusual dismissal in men's ODIs, happening on eight of the twelve occasions.

Sri Lanka's Angelo Mathews was the only cricketer to be dismissed Timed out in international cricket when he was dismissed in such a manner during a group stage match against Bangladesh in 2023 Cricket World Cup.[20][21]

No. Player Dismissal Runs Team Opposition Venue Match Date Result
1 Mohinder Amarnath Handled the ball 15  India  Australia Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne, Australia 2nd Final 9 February 1986 Lost[22]
2 Rameez Raja Obstructing the field 99  Pakistan  England National Stadium, Karachi, Pakistan 2nd ODI 20 November 1987 Lost[23]
3 Mohinder Amarnath Obstructing the field 28  India  Sri Lanka Gujarat Stadium, Ahmedabad, India ODI 22 October 1989 Won[24]
4 Daryll Cullinan Handled the ball 46  South Africa  West Indies Kingsmead Cricket Ground, Durban, South Africa 3rd ODI 27 January 1999 Won[25]
5 Inzamam ul-Haq Obstructing the field 16  Pakistan  India Arbab Niaz Stadium, Peshawar, Pakistan 1st ODI 6 February 2006 Won[26]
6 Mohammed Hafeez Obstructing the field 0  Pakistan  South Africa Kingsmead Cricket Ground, Durban, South Africa 4th ODI 21 March 2013 Won[27]
7 Anwar Ali Obstructing the field 0  Pakistan  South Africa St George's Park, Port Elizabeth, South Africa 2nd ODI 27 November 2013 Won[28]
8 Ben Stokes Obstructing the field 10  England  Australia Lord's, London, England 2nd ODI 5 September 2015 Lost[29]
9 Chamu Chibhabha Handled the ball 18  Zimbabwe  Afghanistan Queens Sports Club, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe 3rd ODI 20 October 2015 Won[30]
10 Xavier Marshall Obstructing the field 34  United States  United Arab Emirates Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Sharjah ODI 8 December 2019 Won[31]
11 Danushka Gunathilaka Obstructing the field 55  Sri Lanka  West Indies Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, Antigua, Antigua and Barbuda 1st ODI 10 March 2021 Lost[32]
12 Angelo Mathews Timed out 0  Sri Lanka  Bangladesh Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi, India World Cup 6 November 2023 Lost[33]

T20I cricket

The first instance of an unusual dismissal in T20Is occurred in June 2017, when England's Jason Roy was given out obstructing the field in a match against South Africa.[34]

No. Player Dismissal Runs Team Opposition Venue Match Date Result
1 Jason Roy Obstructing the field 67  England  South Africa County Ground, Taunton, England 2nd T20I 23 June 2017 Lost[35]
2 Hassan Rasheed Obstructing the field 16  Maldives  Qatar Al Amerat Cricket Stadium, Muscat, Oman T20I 23 January 2019 Lost[36]
3 Sonam Tobgay Retired out[37] 24  Bhutan  Maldives Tribhuvan University International Cricket Ground, Kirtipur T20I 7 December 2019 Lost[38]
4 Fanyan Mughal Hit the ball twice 8  Malta  Romania Moara Vlasiei Cricket Ground, Moara Vlasiei T20I 20 August 2023 Lost[39]

Women's ODI cricket

In international women's cricket, there have been two instances of unusual dismissals: the first came in an ODI match between Sri Lanka and the West Indies in April 2010.[40] Sri Lanka wicket-keeper Dilani Manodara was retired out due to her slow scoring rate in her team's first innings, having taken 70 minutes and 39 balls to score 8 runs.[41] The most recent instance of an unusual dismissal happened when India's Thirush Kamini was given out for obstructing the field in a match against West Indies in 2016.[42]

No. Player Dismissal Runs Team Opposition Venue Match Date Result
1 Dilani Manodara Retired out 8  Sri Lanka  West Indies St Paul's Sporting Complex, St Paul's, St Kitts and Nevis 1st ODI 18 April 2010 Lost[41]
2 Thirush Kamini Obstructing the field 2  India  West Indies Mulupadu Cricket Ground, Vijayawada, India 2nd ODI 13 November 2016 Won[43]

Notes

  1. ^ A bowler gets credit for all usual dismissals except run out.[2]
  2. ^ September 2017, he remains the only player to be dismissed in this mode in Test cricket: although under modern laws, the more common "Handled the ball" dismissals would also class as "obstructing the field".

References

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