Pakistan batsman Mohammad Hafeez the first international cricketer to be out under new ICC rules.
When South African wicketkeeper AB de Villiers threw the ball to the non-striker’s end it struck the body of Pakistan’s opener Hafeez, as he ran to make his ground in the fourth ODI in Durban.
Under new ICC rules the batsman was given out, and he showed what he thought of the decision by angrily ripping his gloves off and throwing them to the ground.
Law 37 states that when batsmen are running between the wicket they cannot change the direction of their run to deliberately obstruct a ball being thrown in.
Before the introduction of this rule in 2011, it was perfectly legitimate for a batsman to obstruct the flight of a ball being thrown in by changing the course of their run.
There have been instances before 2011 of batsmen being given out for obstructing the field however. The earliest known example in one-day cricket was for Pakistan’s Rameez Raja against England in 1987.
Another Pakistani, Inzamam-ul-Haq, was dismissed in 2006 for obstruction and so was India’s Mohinder Amarnath in 1989.
Hafeez’s is the first time it has happened under the new ICC law however and it is also the first example of the incident occurring outside of the sub-continent.
The first instance of Law 37 coming into action in professional cricket was on 30 July 2011 in a County Championship match between Surrey and Gloucestershire. Former England batsman Mark Ramprakash was given out for deliberately distracting a fielder trying to run him out.
Watch Hafeez’s bizarre dismissal below:
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