An interesting passage in play resulted in a dead ball and an injury after the ball hit the roof during a Big Bash League encounter at the Docklands Stadium in Melbourne today (December 23).
Melbourne Renegades were up against Perth Scorchers at the Marvel Stadium, which features a retractable roof. Due to technical issues, all games at the venue are played with a closed roof. It has often resulted in the batters hitting the balls straight onto the roof, which fetched an automatic six in the previous seasons.
However, a dead ball was announced when Perth batter Cooper Connolly hit Kane Richardson’s slower-length ball to the roof on Monday, a result of the changed rules that Cricket Australia have implemented to deal with the issue.
Batters will no longer be getting awarded automatic six runs for hitting the Marvel Stadium roof, with the umpires deciding whether the ball would have cleared the boundary.
If they decide it would have gone past the rope, the batter will be given six runs, if not a dead ball will be called.
