Stapel
International Regular
During our yesterday evening's midsummer T20 match, we had some discussion in the field. And some more discussion after the match while sharing a beer and a laugh.
An opponent batsman managed to pull a rather poor delivery to square leg. The fielder at deep forward square got in the line, but the ball was then deflected by the umpire, who was desperately trying to get out of the way. The fielder was on the wrong foot and could watch the ball crossing the boundary, pretty much where he was just a second ago. We figured the umpire is a dead object and agreed it was four runs. Yet, it is fair to conclude it cost us 3 runs. I can imagine a few faces turning sour if this would had happened on the last ball of the match, in a tense situation. Could it be that the correct decision is a dead ball? Some dude even suggested it was 5 runs (seems silly to me).
An opponent batsman managed to pull a rather poor delivery to square leg. The fielder at deep forward square got in the line, but the ball was then deflected by the umpire, who was desperately trying to get out of the way. The fielder was on the wrong foot and could watch the ball crossing the boundary, pretty much where he was just a second ago. We figured the umpire is a dead object and agreed it was four runs. Yet, it is fair to conclude it cost us 3 runs. I can imagine a few faces turning sour if this would had happened on the last ball of the match, in a tense situation. Could it be that the correct decision is a dead ball? Some dude even suggested it was 5 runs (seems silly to me).
