Timed out dismissals in professional cricket, full list: Saud Shakeel becomes latest victim

State Bank of Pakistan were 128-1 after Pakistan Television captain Amad Butt won the toss and opted to field. Mohammad Shahzad dismissed captain Umar Amin and Fawad Alam with consecutive balls at this point.

Shakeel, the next man, took four minutes (as per the scoreboard) to walk out. PTV appealed for timed out and got the dismissal in their favour. Shahzad (5-29) soon completed his hat-trick when he bowled Mohammad Irfan with his next ball. This also meant that SBP lost four wickets in three balls. They collapsed to 205 as Imran Butt top-scored with 89.

Shakeel became only the seventh batter in the history of first-class cricket to get timed out, a mode of dismissal that was added to the Laws of Cricket only in 1980. Back in 1919, Sussex needed a run to win against Somerset, but their No.11 Harold Heygate did not walk out in time. The umpire ruled him out at that point, but in the absence of any Law, the scorers registered him as “out, absent” (the match still ended in a tie). However, subsequent scorecards show him merely as “absent”.

In reality, Sussex had only ten men for the match. Heygate, who just happened to be there, was coaxed into playing. He did not bowl and made a duck from No.11 in the first innings. When it was his time to bat again, he was in the pavilion in a blue suit, trying to strap his pads on.

In 1997-98, Tripura No.11 Hemulal Yadav of Tripura was busy chatting with the team manager outside the boundary line when the ninth wicket fell. He made no attempt to arrive at the crease, and was the first – at that point – to be given out in this manner in professional cricket.

In the 21st century, however, the Howa Bowl matches in South Africa were belatedly given first-class status. This meant that Andrew Jordaan’s dismissal, a decade before Yadav’s, became the first on the list.

Perhaps the most remarkable of all timed out dismissals was of Vasbert Drakes, whom Border included in their XI under the assumption that he would arrive in time. As things turned out, his flight was delayed, and he was in another continent when he was ruled out.

During the 2023 World Cup, Angelo Mathews (somewhat controversially) became the first batter to be timed out in international cricket as well as in any limited-overs cricket. A month later, Sierra Leone dismissed Ghana’s Godfred Bakiweyem in similar manner – the first instance in any T20 cricket. It is worth a mention that Ghana had got Abass Gbla out obstructing the field earlier in the match.

Timed out victims in professional cricket