A brilliant leg-side stumping from Ellie Threlkeld in the opening match of The Hundred on July 21 earned plenty of plaudits, but questions emerged over the legality of the dismissal after replays suggested that the wicket was against the laws.
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The opening night of The Hundred, featuring the Manchester Originals and Oval Invincibles women’s outfits, saw a record crowd of 7,395 spectators throng The Oval to kickstart a unique cricketing extravaganza. Chasing Originals’ score of 135, Invincibles slipped to 12-3 and then 36-4, before Dane van Niekerk and Marizanne Kapp combined to steer the innings towards the target.
Their 73-run stand was broken when Kapp, in an attempt to glance a delivery sliding to the leg-side, moved out of her crease, with Threlkeld showing lightning reflexes to effect a stumping.
The exquisite glovework received widespread applause, but soon after, replays raised questions over the legality of the dismissal, with television grabs suggesting that Threlkeld had received the ball in front of the stumps.
According to law 27.3 of the MCC rulebook, the position of the wicketkeeper “shall remain wholly behind the wicket at the striker’s end from the moment the ball comes into play until a ball delivered by the bowler touches the bat or person of the striker or, passes the wicket at the striker’s end or, the striker attempts a run.”
If the wicketkeeper is found contravening the Law, “the striker’s end umpire shall call and signal No ball as soon as applicable after the delivery of the ball.”
With a part of Threlkeld’s gloves sticking out in front of the stumps as she effected the stumping, the delivery seemingly should have been called a no-ball.
🧤⚡️ @EllieThrelkeld
— Lancashire Thunder 💥 (@Thundercric) July 21, 2021
By the end of that over from Sophie Ecclestone, Invincibles still needed 24 off 15 balls, but van Niekerk kept her calm as she steered the team to a five-wicket win, with two balls remaining from the 100-run quota.
Weren’t Threlkeld’s gloves slightly ahead of the stumps for that stumping?
— daniel norcross (@norcrosscricket) July 21, 2021
Gloves in front of stumps from Threlkeld. NOT OUT
— Women's Cricket Blog (@WomensCricBlog) July 21, 2021
As plenty have pointed out, looks on the replay like her gloves might have been in front of the stumps when she took it
— Matt Roller (@mroller98) July 21, 2021
Enjoyed that first Hundred match – especially as I played a few schoolboy matches with the great Jon Batty (the Oval Invincibles coach) when I was a nipper. Also the right result as Threlkeld's stumping of Kapp shouldn't have been allowed (ball taken in front of stumps)
— Simon Briggs (@simonrbriggs) July 21, 2021
