Watch: Matthew Breetzke’s last-ball leg-bye off S Sreesanth to tie a Zim Afro T10 2023 match exposed a grey area in the laws regarding when the ball should be called dead.

Harare Hurricanes needed to defend eight runs in the last over, and Harare Hurricanes captain Eoin Morgan turned to S Sreesanth to bowl for the first time in the match.

Sreesanth clean bowled Karim Janat with his first ball, and pulled off an athletic effort to run out Sean Williams with a direct hit off the fifth. Cape Town Samp Army needed to score two off the last ball.

At this point, Sreesanth bowled a yorker that hit Matthew Breetzke on the boot, popped up, and rested itself inside the flap of his pads. By then, Breetzke had already set off for a leg-bye, with the ball still trapped inside the flap.

By the time the ball fell on to the ground, Breetzke was already halfway through for the run. Sreesanth and wicketkeeper Robin Uthappa protested feebly, while Mohammad Nabi appealed (probably for obstructing the field).

However, there was not much support from the rest of the team, and umpires – Bismillah Jan Shinwari and Forster Mutizwa – let it be.

Should they have allowed the run? According to Law 20.1.1.4, a ball is dead if “whether played or not it becomes trapped between the bat and person of a batter or between items of his/her clothing or equipment.”

However, the Laws do not throw enough light on how long the ball needs to be trapped for it to be called dead. While the ball did get trapped inside the flap of the pad, it hit the ground almost immediately after Breetzke began to sprint.

The entire discussion, however, is an exercise in futility, for the Harare Hurricanes won the match in the Super Over.

Watch the Zim Afro T10 Law puzzler here:

 

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