There was a moment of high drama at the conclusion of the Royal Challengers Bangalore-Lucknow Super Giants game, with RCB denied a match-tying pre-delivery run out by the umpires – but it is not clear why.

With one needed to win, Harshal Patel spotted non-striker Ravi Bishnoi out of his ground, and attempted to remove the bails. However, he missed the stumps with his first effort, and instead turned and threw down the stumps as Bishnoi dived to regain his ground.

Replays revealed that Bishnoi was just out of his ground when the wicket was put down, but the onfield umpires opted not to go for the review, instead calling dead ball.

Bishnoi was out of his ground on the second attempt pic.twitter.com/zkMTCk9Xdp

— Ben Gardner (@Ben_Wisden) April 10, 2023

There was little debate from the players on the field at the time, with Patel perhaps embarrassed over his botched first attempt. However, as per the Laws of Cricket, it is difficult to see why the appeal was ruled out.

After a recent clarification, the pre-delivery run out law states that any such attempt can only come before “the moment the bowler’s arm reaches the highest point of his/her normal bowling action in the delivery swing”. Since Patel never entered his delivery swing, that condition is seemingly satisfied in this case.

There is also a caveat in the dead ball law for allowing the ball to remain live if the bowler doesn’t deliver the ball, explicitly when a pre-delivery run out is attempted. Clause 20.4.2 states that the ball is dead if “the ball does not leave the bowler’s hand for any reason other than an attempt to run out the nonstriker”.

In the laws, it states that if a pre-delivery run out appeal is deemed not out, the umpire “shall call and signal dead ball as soon as possible”. But in the first instance, since the wicket was not put down, there was no appeal.

Wisden.com has reached out to the MCC for clarification on the laws in question.