Watch: BBL team penalised by umpires after bizarre ‘deliberate short run’

Watch: Hobart Hurricanes No.5 Tim David’s cheeky attempt to keep strike in a BBL encounter backfired when his deliberate short tun led to five penalty runs being added to the Melbourne Stars total.

With Hurricanes looking to finish off their innings on a high, David, striking at 200 at that point, decided to keep as much of the strike as possible. Off the fifth ball of the 20th over, David tapped a full delivery from Brody Crouch to the long-on region, looking to complete two and retain strike.

He managed to reach back to his crease in time before a flat throw from the fielder; however, replays showed what the umpires had noticed: David had covered only three-quarters of the pitch, intentionally running short to turn and reach the striker’s end in time.

According to Law 18.5.1 of the MCC Laws of Cricket, if either umpire considers that the batter deliberately ran short, they will disallow all runs off that ball to the batting side, return the batter to their original end and award five penalty runs to the fielding side.

And while the stunt allowed David to retain strike, it meant that the Stars began their innings with five bonus runs in their chase of 181.

Hurricanes’ Peter Handscomb later told Fox Sports: “Tim was just trying to get back to his end. He’s a big boy and can hit sixes so it was his job to get back on strike. I’ve never heard that rule before but every day is a school day so you learn something.”