New Delhi. Imagine, a batsman comes to the crease, takes guard from the umpire, but before the bowler can bowl the ball, he walks back towards the pavilion, then another comes, and he does the same. In no time the entire team returns to the pavilion without bowling even a single extra ball. It may sound like a joke of a street match, but in reality a similar ‘spectacle’ has happened on the international cricket field.
This match between the women’s teams of United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Qatar has been recorded in the record books of cricket like a mysterious puzzle, where the strategy left behind the traditional thrill of the game.
Full account of the match: What was that strange scene?
This historic and unique incident was seen during the ‘ACC Women’s T20 Championship’. The UAE team was batting and their start was like a dream. The opening batsmen thrashed Qatar’s bowlers. Within no time the score reached 192 runs without any loss in 16.2 overs. Isha Ojha and her teammates were set at the crease and were heading towards a huge score.
But then dark clouds started appearing in the sky, there was a possibility of rain and the UAE team was afraid that if it rained and the match was canceled or the overs were reduced, then the equation of Net Run Rate (NRR) could get spoiled.
Wall of rules and unique path
The UAE team wanted to stop their innings there so that Qatar could be called to bat and the result of the match would be in their favor under the Duckworth-Lewis rule, but according to the T20 rules of cricket, you cannot ‘declare’ an innings in ODI and T20 like in Test cricket. The real game of strategy started from here. The UAE captain and coach decided that they would take advantage of the loophole in the rules. When the score was 192 runs, the set batsmen left the crease and came back ‘retired out’. After this, whichever player came on the field did not face a single ball and informed the umpire that he was being ‘retired out’.
10 wickets on zero balls!
One by one, 10 players of UAE returned to the pavilion. People who looked at the scorecard were stunned. The team’s score was 192 runs in 16.2 overs, but the column of wickets was showing ‘all out’ (10 wickets). The special thing was that during the fall of the last 10 wickets, the Qatar team did not have to bowl a single ball. This was the first incident of its kind in the history of cricket when a team got itself out in this way to take a strategic lead.
Fallout and controversy
This ‘strange’ strategy of UAE worked. When the Qatar team came out to chase the target of 193 runs, they collapsed like a house of cards in front of the deadly bowling of UAE. The entire Qatar team was all out for just 29 runs and UAE won the match by a huge margin of 163 runs.
Cricket is called a game of uncertainties, but this match between UAE and Qatar proved that history can be created here not only with the ball and bat, but also with the mind and a detailed understanding of the rules. Fall of 10 wickets without bowling the ball will be counted among those cricket stories which the future generations will always listen to with surprise.