An unbelievable scene was staged in the second session of the first day’s play in the second test between Bangladesh and New Zealand at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur on Wednesday.
Bangladesh’s most experienced batter Mushfiqur Rahim was out for “handling the ball” in the 40.4 overs.
The wicketkeeper-batter, who was playing his 88th test match, defended Kyle Jamieson’s ball on backfoot. The ball bounced on the ground too. At this point, Mushfiqur pushed the ball back away with his gloves.
This led the New Zealand players to appeal for “obstructing the field” out.
The third umpire announced the Bangladesh wicketkeeper-batter out after watching a video replay.
Thus Mushfiqur Rahim became the first Bangladesh cricketer, overall the 12th men’s international cricketer and 2nd player in Test cricket, to be out for “obstructing the field”.
Bangladesh’s opening batter Tamim Iqbal was commentating at that time.
Explaining the situation, he said this could be because of practice during the training session. During the training sessions, a batter defends a ball and returns it to the bowler with hands almost subconsciously.
This may have led to this situation, he argued.