VIDEO | Umpire gives Steve O’ Keefe run-out despite both “runners” being well inside crease

VIDEO | Umpire gives Steve O’ Keefe run-out despite both “runners” being well inside crease

SportsCafe Desk

By SportsCafe Desk, SportsCafe Editor

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Despite being amongst the oldest sports on earth, cricket has never stopped surprising people with the strange occurrences that have forced the guardians to consult and amend the law from time to time. New South Wales’ Steve O’Keefe became the latest victim of this loop in the Sheffield Shield.

The incident occurred during the match between New South Wales and Victoria on Day 2 of a Sheffield Shield match. After suffering a hamstring injury previously, the spinner was forced to come out to bat at No. 11 with the rest of the side sent back to the pavilion.

However, whether it was his age or just a brainfade moment, the 34-year-old committed a terrible blunder. He had completely forgotten that he had asked Nick Larkin to be his runner in the last moments of the innings. He dealt his first ball really well to push Scott Boland’s delivery towards mid-on and made an immediate call for Peter Nevill for a single.

While that call was an instinct, so was O’Keefe’s action of leaving his crease and making a quick run for it. Jon Holland did well to dive and stop the ball, by which time Nevill had covered the ground easily and so had Larkin. To further complicate things, even O’Keefe had covered the 22 yards in this time and was standing at the bowler’s end.

It took him some time to realize his mistake and he tried reaching back to his other end with a hamstrung leg. However, Holland had thrown the ball to wicket-keeper Seb Gotch, who didn’t take a second to dismantle the bails as the umpire raised his finger.

It did raise a few questions about the rules of cricket as to how could O’Keefe be given out despite both him and his runner making to the other end safely. However, according to the MCC rule 30.2.5, "When a batsman who has a runner is striker, his/her ground is always at the wicket-keeper’s end.  However, 30.2.1, 30.2.2, 30.2.3 and 30.2.4 will still apply, but only to the runner and the non-striker, so that that ground will also belong to either the non-striker or the runner, as the case may be.”

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