Watch: South Africa were given a rare five-run penalty and were forced to bowl extra delivery after the ball hit a discarded wicketkeeping glove in a bizarre incident against Zimbabwe.
The incident happened in the final over of Zimbabwe’s nine-over innings after rain shortened the fixture. With Zimbabwe needing a big finish after recovering from 19-4, Milton Shumba looked to reverse-scoop the ball from Anrich Nortje over short third but ended up top edging to fine-leg.
Looking for a run out, Quinton de Kock pulled off one of his wicketkeeping gloves and dropped it in front of him, enabling himself to throw down the stumps more easily. By the time Lungi Ngidi had thrown the ball at de Kock, the batters were well inside their grounds. But the throw landed just short of de Kock and on top of his discarded glove before he was able to gather.
Umpire Michael Gough, immediately signalled five penalty runs to the scorers. He enacted law 28.2.1.3 which states that a fielder “will be deemed to have fielded the ball illegally if, while the ball is in play he/she wilfully discards a piece of clothing, equipment or any other object which subsequently makes contact with the ball.”
According to law 28.2.3, if such an incident takes place “the ball shall immediately become dead and:
– the penalty for a No ball or a Wide shall stand.
– any runs completed by the batter shall be credited to the batting side, together with the run in progress if the batters had already crossed at the instant of the offence.
– the ball shall not count as one of the over.
In addition the umpire shall
– award 5 Penalty runs to the batting side.”
The penalty helped Zimbabwe post a total of 79-5. Wesley Madhevere top-scored with 35 off 18. Before rain led to abandonment of the match, de Kock had been firing South Africa towards their target on 47 from 18 balls.
The no-result means both South Africa and Zimbabwe will be awarded one point from the fixture.
Watch the bizarre glove-hitting incident here:
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