(Reuters) -Manipur’s Lamabam Singh fell victim to one of cricket’s most unusual dismissals when he was given out for hitting the ball twice during a Ranji Trophy plate league match against Meghalaya in Surat on Tuesday.
Singh defended an Aryan Bora delivery, but watched the ball roll back toward the stumps before using his bat to block it again.
The MCC rule book says striking the ball twice is not allowed, except if a player is doing so to guard their wicket. However, Lamabam didn’t protest the umpire’s decision and walked off the field, Cricinfo reported.
At the international level, there has only ever been one such dismissal, when Fanyan Mughal of Malta was given out after he hit the ball a second time against Romania in the Continental Cup in August 2023.
In Ranji Trophy history, Lamabam’s double-hit marks just the fifth such dismissal. The previous incident took place in 2005-06, when Jammu & Kashmir skipper Dhruv Mahajan met a similar fate against Jharkhand.
Before that, Andhra’s K Bavanna (1963-64), Jammu & Kashmir’s Shahid Parvez (1986-87) and Tamil Nadu’s Anand George (1998-99) all experienced identical dismissals.
(Reporting by Suramya Kaushik in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonali Paul)
