Pakistan were making a strong recovery in their must-win Super 12 match against South Africa at the SCG, with Mohammad Nawaz on 28 off 21 and Iftikhar Ahmed on 18 at the other end. Nawaz had just smashed a six into the stands with a slog-sweep off Tabraiz Shamsi. When he tried to repeat the shot the very next ball, he was struck on the pad, with Quinton de Kock appealing straight away from behind the stumps.

Before umpire Chris Gaffaney could raise his finger, the ball trickled away to Lungi Ngidi at short fine leg. Nawaz charged down the wicket for a single before Iftikhar sent him back from the other end. Ngidi threw down the stumps with Nawaz well short of his ground as the umpire raised his finger. Seemingly thinking he had been given run-out, Nawaz walked off the field without consulting his team mate or checking with Gaffaney what the dismissal was for.

In fact, the method of dismissal was recorded as LBW, with replays showing Nawaz had got a thick bottom edge on the ball before it had gone on to hit his pad. Had Nawaz reviewed the decision he would have been given not out LBW and the ball would have been declared dead, meaning the run out would not have stood and Nawaz would be able to continue his innings. Law 20.1.1.3 states: “The ball becomes dead when a batter is dismissed. The ball will be deemed dead from the instant of the incident causing the dismissal.” Therefore, Nawaz could have have been run out as he had already been adjudged lbw – had he reviewed the lbw, he would have remained at the crease.

On commentary, Shaun Pollock and Dale Steyn were in disbelief that Nawaz had not checked with the umpire over the method of dismissal.

“The first he knows that he’s been given out LBW is when he gets to the dressing room, that’s my guess,” said Pollock.

“It’s a strange one, I’ve never really seen that before,” was Steyn’s assessment.

On Twitter, Harsha Bhogle was also perplexed by the dismissal writing: “That has to be among the stranger dismissals I have seen.”

That has to be among the stranger dismissals I have seen. Can understand Nawaz not realising the umpire had given him out lbw but Iftikhar would have known. Or did he miss it too? A review would have saved the batter

— Harsha Bhogle (@bhogleharsha) November 3, 2022

Pakistan went on to post 185-9 thanks to two superb half-centuries from Iftikhar and Shadab Khan. It was a chaotic end to the innings with rain falling along with four wickets in the last eight balls of the innings.

Watch Nawaz’s bizarre wicket below:

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