Nat Sciver-Brunt backheels flannel onto own arm in never-seen-before dead ball during second T20I between England Women and South Africa Women

Watch: In a hilarious subplot during the intense second women’s T20I between England and South Africa, Nat Sciver-Brunt backheeled her towel onto her arm, leading to a rare dead ball being called.

The incident happened in the 19th of South Africa’s innings. Sciver-Brunt accidentally dropped her towel in her run-up while bowling to Nadine de Klerk. Instead of dropping on the ground, the towel fell off her waist and landed on her foot while she was entering her delivery stride. Upon landing on her right heel, the clothing came up in the air, entangled itself with the ball just as Sciver was about to release it, and was delivered along with the ball.

Naturally, it was called a dead ball, leaving the players in splits.

As per MCC's law 20.4.2.6, a ball becomes dead when "the striker is distracted by any noise or movement or in any other way while preparing to receive, or receiving a delivery. This shall apply whether the source of the distraction is within the match or outside it."

South Africa were eventually restricted to 168-6, 36 runs short of England’s target. For the visitors Danni Wyatt’s 45-ball 78 and Sciver-Brunt’s 67 not out off 43 powered them to 204-4 before Sarah Glenn (4-20) spun a web around the hosts’ batters. With that win, they wrapped up the series 2-0 with another match yet to be played.

Watch: Sciver-Brunt's drops towel midway through run-up

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