With the fielding unit of almost every team getting more and more agile now, the batsmen, these days, can’t relax at all while running between the wickets. The fielders are not only moving much quicker across the turf because of their superior fitness, they are managing to pull off direct hits quite frequently as well. Sometimes these direct hits are such abrupt that they produce various incidents of Bizzare Run Outs.
Some of the run-outs, however, are not actually the result of the fielder’s brilliance. They are the result of the batsman’s recklessness. Here are the 3 most bizarre run-outs –
1. Misbah ul Haq (Against India in 2007)
Pakistan was in India in 2007 to play a Test series and Misbah was their most in-form batsman. In the Delhi Test match of the series, Misbah was actually living up to the expectations and was trying to put Pakistan in a stronger position in the Test match.
The veteran right-hander was batting on 80 odd and was approaching a well deserved century, but then suddenly he gifted his wicket away to India on a platter.
He pushed the ball to the deep and comfortably got to the non-striker end to complete a single, but just as he reached the non-striker end, he jumped a little bit to evade the throw of Dinesh Karthik which came from the deep.
Obviously, Misbah didn’t expect the ball to hit the stumps as he jumped, but to his misfortune, it actually turned out to be a direct hit and the former Pakistan captain got run out in the most bizarre manner.
2. Alistair Cook (Against India in 2012)
Alistair Cook’s run-out incident was also pretty much like that of Misbah, the only difference was that Cook didn’t jump himself, but he lifted his bat to give the ball the space to hit the stumps.
It was the Kolkata Test match and Cook was batting on 190. Kevin Pietersen was batting at the other end and the pair was taking the game away from India quite fast.
Also Read: Why is Sachin Tendulkar popular in Pakistan
But then Pietersen played a shot towards the leg side and couldn’t clear the infield. So he had to send Cook back who was looking for a single. Cook went back and got his bat to his crease comfortably, but he surprisingly then lifted his bat to let the throw pass as it came towards him.
The throw, unfortunately, hit the stumps, and Cook’s bat was in the air at that time. The event of one of the most Bizzare Run Outs in cricket.
3. Azhar Ali (Against Australia in 2018)
This was the funniest of them all. Azhar played the ball backward of square on the offside and thought the ball went for a four. But, the ball didn’t actually hit the boundary cushions.
One of the Australian fielders fetched it from the deep and threw it back to the keeper. Since the ball was still not dead, the keeper took the bails off.
Also Read: Why is Shahid Afridi underrated in Pakistan
While the bails were taken off, Azhar was talking to his partner Asad Shafiq in the middle of the pitch thinking it was a boundary. He was distraught having been dismissed in that manner.
