Watch: Tabraiz Shamsi stopped in his tracks during his run up before delivering the ball, seemingly distracting Mohammad Rizwan in the first T20I between Pakistan and South Africa in Lahore.

Shamsi is known for his eye-catching novelty on the field and in the first T20I against Pakistan, he served a sample of it in the penultimate ball of his spell. Mohammad Rizwan had waltzed his way to 75 in under 50 balls and in a bid to confuse the well-set Pakistan batsman, Shamsi acted like he was aborting his run up only to go on and deliver the ball.

A puzzled Rizwan pulled away from the crease, but fended the ball away with the bat. The ball hit the bat and went off to fine leg. Aleem Dar declared the ball dead because the batsman was not prepared.

This isn’t the first instance of a bowler seemingly aborting his run up before delivering the ball. In the Indian Premier League’s 2014 edition, Shane Watson was left flummoxed after Kolkata Knight Riders’ Andre Russell seemingly aborted his run up close to the stumps, but then suddenly went on to complete the delivery. Interestingly, it wasn’t called a dead ball on that occasion.

Watch Shamsi’s gimmick here:

What was that… 🤣🤣🤣🤣#SAvsPAK pic.twitter.com/knohwlnYOR

— Priscilla 🇮🇳 (@priscicktgirl) February 11, 2021

Watch the Russell delivery to Watson here: