Video: Pakistan's Adnan Akmal falls to rare form of dismissal - 'obstructing the field'
Playing for Lahore Blues in a match against Quetta Region in the ongoing Haier Twenty20 Cup, Pakistan’s premier T20 league, former Test batsman Adnan Akmal was victim to the rarest of rare dismissals. He came in between a throw and the stumps, and was given out by the TV umpire after studying replays.
This is only the sixth time in the 12-year history of the T20 format when a batsman has been given out in this fashion, none of which has come in an international match. Five batsmen have been given out for 'obstructing the field' in the history of ODI cricket, while there has only been 1 such instance in Test cricket.
Akmal, who played 12 Tests for Pakistan between 2010 and 2014, was batting on 12 when the incident happened on Wednesday in Rawalpindi. Quetta’s Sher Hasan tried to hit the stumps, but Akmal's body came in the way. At first glance it looked as if the batsman had been trying to protect himself, but the TV umpire thought otherwise.
According to Law 37 of MCC’s Laws of Cricket, a batsman is out if he "willfully obstructs the opposition by word or action".
A video of the incident and how the batsman has defended his actions:
SmoothFLL: Exclusive Interview of Adnan Akmal of Lahore Blues Team at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium by PCB Highlights http://t.co/0p4pfQoZs9
— LIPSapp Radio (@RadioFLL) September 2, 2015
Other instances of batsmen given out for ‘obstructing the field’
Yusuf Pathan, playing for Kolkata Knight Riders, had been given out for 'obstructing the field' during a 2013 IPL match against Pune Warriors India. The four other players to have been given out in this fashion in T20s are Ahmed Hayat, Chinthaka Perera, Adrian Barath and Devon Thomas.
Pakistan players seem to have a penchant for getting out to this unlucky and extremely rare form of dismissal (there is a 0.11% chance of this happening in a T20 match, and far less in the longer formats). Out off the five batsmen given out in this fashion in ODIs, four are from Pakistan and one from India – Ramiz Raja (1987), Mohinder Amarnath (1989), Inzamam-ul-Haq (2006), Mohammad Hafeez and Anwar Ali (2013).
The unique distinction of being the only person to have fallen to this dismissal in Test cricket is England’s Len Hutton, owing to his moment of indiscretion against South Africa at The Oval in 1951.