Cricket for Birds
Following on from last week, I can now continue with my list of the ten ways of getting out. We’re getting in to the rarer ones now. Bill Oddie’s equivalent guide to birds (for birds!!) might now list storks, herons and kingfishers…
6. Hit Wicket
Not the most common way of getting out. If the batsman hits his stumps while facing a ball, he is out. This has the potential to make a right mess of the woodwork, but often it is only the slightest touch which dislodges the bails.
Former England and Lancashire legend John Crawley made a mess of his stumps while on 99 for England. He never made a century for England.
7. Hit twice
Where the batsman hits the ball twice deliberately. You are allowed to hit the ball again to stop it rolling on to your stumps, but you aren’t exactly meant to stop it, and then smash it to the boundary. Although it is tempting… No test batsman has ever been out hit twice.
8.Obstruction
If a batsman deliberately gets in the way of the fielders, he is given out. This only happens occasionally. England legend Len Hutton is the only man to have been dismissed in test cricket, in 1951, while Pakistani captain Inzamam Ul-Haq was given out in this way during a one-day international in February. The notorious “Inzy” was too lazy to get back into his crease, and so pushed away a throw aimed at his stumps.
9.Handled Ball
If the batsman uses his hand to control the ball, other than when it is “dead,” and he wants to return it to the fielders, he is given out. England captain Michael Vaughan was controversially dismissed in this fashion against Sri Lanka a few years ago. He claimed he was just giving the ball back to the fielders, but the Sri Lankans appealed and he was dismissed all the same.
10. Timed out
After a wicket falls, the new batsman has 2 minutes to make it onto the pitch.
No batsman has ever been out this way in test matches, because they generally aren’t daft enough not to be ready. But I remember playing a game, where our number 3 batsman was dared not to put his kit on for the first over. To his horror, the opposition opened the bowling with an England youth bowler. With the last ball of the first over, our opener had his middle stump uprooted, and there was a scramble as our guy tried to get his kit on in time. He made it...
with seconds to spare!!
11th May 2006