Questions Over Laws of Cricket After Bizarre Not Out Decision on Clean Bowled

A surprising event occurred in Australia’s capital city Canberra when in a local ACT Premier Cricket Third Grade competition, the middle stump was knocked back by the bowler, but the bails didn’t come off.

The mind-boggling incident was from a game between Ginninderra Cricket Club and West District Cricket Club at the Reid Oval.  According to The Canberra Times report, Ginninderra bowler Andy Reynolds looked to clean bowl Tigers opener Matthew Bosustow and had already begun celebrating after watching the ball knock over the middle stump.

Bosustow had started to walk off towards the dugout before realizing that the bails were still in place, sitting still on off and leg stumps which remained upright.

Then the chaos began, but after a long chat between the two on-field umpires, Bosustow was declared not out due to the laws of the game.

According to Law 29 of the Marylebone Cricket Club — custodian of the Laws of Cricket, “The wicket is broken when at least one bail is completely removed from the top of the stumps, or one or more stumps is removed from the ground.”

In this instance, neither was the bail dislodged nor was the middle stump uprooted from the ground. Had the latter happened despite the bails staying on, the batter would have been declared out.

“I’ve never seen that happen before,” Wests captain, Sam Wightman, said. “No one has seen it happen. We all found it pretty funny afterwards. At the time we were happy to take the wicket, then we weren’t so happy the batsman had to come back. We got him not long after, which made me happier.”