Bizarre: Middle stump uprooted but bails remain intact

Melbourne, May 9: A bizarre incident happened in Australian cricket, during a match between Moonee Valley Cricket Club and Strathmore Heights Cricket Club.

Moonee Valley batsman Jatinder Singh got out in a strange manner. Singh was clean bowled and the middle stump was uprooted but shockingly the bails remained intact balancing on the other two undisturbed stumps.

The condition of the stumps during the incident (Image courtesy: MyCricket Facebook page)

The Umpires were understandably confused in the entire situation and it took them some time to come to a conclusion. The batsman was finally given out.

MCC Law 28 (The Wicket is Down) suggests, "The wicket is put down if a bail is completely removed from the top of the stumps, or a stump is struck out of the ground."

This part of the Law clearly suggests that a wicket down is considered when either the bails are removed or a stump or stumps are out of the ground.

In this case, the middle stump was completely uprooted. Thus, umpires were right to give Jatinder Singh out.

Here is the Full Law

Moonee Valley captain Michael Ozbun was completely awestricken at such an incident but neither he nor the batsman complained about it.

Ozbun was quoted local media The Leader: "We had no idea what the actual ruling on it was, but we all admired it for a few minutes.

"You probably couldn't do that again if you tried. We weren't sure if maybe (the stumps) were put it at a slight angle so there was just a little bit of pressure.

"When they were sitting on the stumps, they were in the grooves. It wasn't like the middle of the bails were above the stumps or anything.

"The ball had to have hit at the exact right point that the stump didn't fly up, it went down."

It was a first of it kind dismissal in cricket. A gravity defining moment which is sure to surprise the entire cricket fraternity.

OneIndia News