4 Less-common modes of dismissals in cricket
In the second ODI of the recent England-Australia series, Ben Stokes was controversially given out for what the umpires considered as an act of obstructing the field when he stuck out his hand, seemingly, to prevent the ball thrown by the bowler Mitchell Starc from hitting the stumps to run him out.
The incident caused huge furore and experts debated whether Australian captain Steven Smith acted in the spirit of the game by not withdrawing the appeal and if the umpires were correct in ruling the batsman as out in one of the lesser common ways by which a batsman could be dismissed. The Aussies let the appeal stand and the umpires deemed that Stokes was guilty of the charge and had to head back to the pavilion.
Apart from the well known and common forms of dismissal like caught out, leg before wicket, bowled, run out, hit wicket and stumped, the MCC Laws of Cricket also mention 4 ways of dismissals which aren’t very common and their rules may not be very well known.
1. Obstructing the field
The MCC rulebook (Law 37 mentions): “A batsman is out Obstructing the field if he wilfully attempts to obstruct or distract the fielding side by word or action. In particular, but not solely, it shall be regarded as obstruction and either batsman will be out Obstructing the field if while the ball is in play and after the striker has completed the act of playing the ball, he wilfully strikes the ball with
(i) a hand not holding the bat, unless this is in order to avoid injury.
(ii) any other part of his person or with his bat.”
Any runs scored from the delivery before the obstruction act is done is added to the batting side’s total and the bowler doesn’t get the credit for the wicket.
The rulebook mentions that a batsman isn’t guilty of obstructing the field if the act was accidental or unintentional and also if the batsman’s motive was only to return the ball back to the fielding side.
Len Hutton is the only batsman to have been dismissed for obstructing the field in Test cricket while there have been 6 instances (including Stokes’ dismissal) in ODIs till date. The most remarkable & painful one among the six was Rameez Raja’s dismissal as he blocked the fielder’s throw while making his way back for a double while batting on 98.
In first-class cricket, there have been 23 instances of a player being given out in this fashion. Worcestershire wicketkeeper Tom Straw is the only batsmen to be dismissed twice in first-class cricket for obstructing the field – with the two instances coming in 1899 and 1901 coincidentally against the same opponents – Warwickshire.