VIDEO | Commentators left stunned as umpire fails to call no-ball despite Swepson landing ball outside the pitch

VIDEO | Commentators left stunned as umpire fails to call no-ball despite Swepson landing ball outside the pitch

SportsCafe Desk

By SportsCafe Desk, SportsCafe Editor

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Bizzare incidents happen in cricket, but it seems like Sheffield Shield has taken the role of being the pioneer of it. After a catch was taken off short-leg fielder’s helmet, Mitchell Swepson turned a ball into a batsman by landing it off the pitch but still the umpire didn’t call it a no-ball.

Cricket in Australia, be it at international or domestic level, has one thing in common - excitement. At times, the teams from Down Under put up really uninspiring displays on the cricket field, but when it comes to stuff to entertain the others, they do it like nobody does. One such incident in the match between Victoria and Queensland at Junction Oval was sure to entertain you.

Queensland’s Mitchell Swepson landed the ball outside of the pitch used for the game and surprisingly it had a Shane Warnish turn on it and as a result, the ball turned into the Victorian left-hander. The batsman wanted to offer a shot in the beginning, but the length was so wide that he ended up not doing it. 

He left it for the wicket-keeper Jimmy Peirson and when he collected the ball, the ball was inside the line. After the delivery, Swepson immediately took his cap from the umpire and went back to his fielding mark. While technically it was not wide, ICC’s rule 21.7 says, “The umpire shall call and signal No ball if a ball pitches wholly or partially off the pitch before it reaches the line of the striker’s wicket.”

The commentators were also surprised by that and couldn’t believe why the umpire didn’t call it a no-ball. "That landed off the wicket. That's a no-ball. That did not land on the pitch. That landed outside the return crease, so that's a no-ball. That's not even a hard decision. You can't bowl it there. How has he (umpire) let that go. It completely confused me. It was almost as if it's a practice ball," the two commentators said during a conversation with each other on-air.

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