UAE player Hazrat Bilal bowled a huge no ball in an Abu Dhabi T10 League game today (November 22), sparking reaction from David Warner on social media.
Bilal, who has played seven ODIs for the UAE, was playing for Samp Army in their match against New York Striker's. The Samp side set the Strikers 136 to get, thanks mostly to 75 off 32 from Faf du Plessis. New York Strikers quickly collapsed in response.
Coming on to bowl the fourth over with Strikers already 32-2, Bilal started with a dot and a wide before dismissing Zeeshan Abid with his third ball. He followed up with a dot to impact sub Asif Ali before the no ball. Looking to bang the ball in short on leg stump, Bilal massively overstepped, with his heel well over the line by more than a foot.
Bilal's teammates were seen laughing at his error, Du Plessis smiling at the replay and Reece Topley chuckling on the sidelines.
There was also reaction from Warner on social media, who questioned whether a free-hit had been given for the incident. The Abu Dhabi T10 League does allow for free-hits in the case of front-foot no balls, and Donovan Ferreira smashed the ball for a flat six over extra-cover.
The @AbudhabiT10 league 😂😂😂 was this a free hit?? pic.twitter.com/EvpHkrKuKx
— David Warner (@davidwarner31) November 22, 2024
There were also some questions over how Bilal could have mistakenly over-stepped by such a margin, amid concerns following corruption bans in the League. Pune Devils batting coach Ashar Zaidi, along with team owners Parag Sanghavi and Krishan Kumar Choudhary were banned by the ICC earlier this year after admitting to corrupt activities during the 2021 edition of the competition.
Zaidi has been banned from all cricket for five years for "directly or indirectly soliciting, inducing, enticing, instructing, persuading, encouraging or intentionally facilitating any participant to breach Article 2.1 (corruption)", and "failing to disclose to the anti-corruption officials the full details of any approaches or invitations received to engage in corrupt conduct under the code".
Sanghavi and Choudhary have been banned for two years each.
Samp Army eventually won the game against Strikers easily, limiting them to 99-7 from their 10 overs. Bilal bowled only one over, and conceded nine runs from it.
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