BAN vs NZ | Twitter reacts to Mushfiqur Rahim's instinctive handling of the ball leading to unusual dismissal

SportsCafe Desk

BySportsCafe Desk, SportsCafe Editor

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After inflicting a controversial timed-out dismissal in the World Cup, karma came back with a vengeance against the Tigers with the rarest of incidents on Wednesday. Veteran Mushfiqur Rahim's impulsive attempt to keep the ball from bouncing onto the stumps had him declared out for handling the ball.

New Zealand took full advantage of the traditional slow and turning pitch at the Shere Bangla National Stadium on the opening day of the second Test by scalping four wickets in the opening session of the encounter. The inclusion of Mitchell Santner and Ajaz Patel for the match worked wonders as the hosts were left reeling at 47/4 and in danger of having the series leveled after a famous win in the first Test. However, Mushfiqur Rahim and Shahadat Hossain put up a resilient partnership to reignite hopes, steering the team past Lunch without further loss before breaching the 50-run mark in their partnership. Just when the side seemed to have gotten away from murky waters, Rahim handed a bonus to the Kiwis in the most unexpected fashion.

The veteran batter was up against the two-meter lanky figure of Kyle Jamieson in the 41st over and the right-arm quick banged in a stock ball short of a length to force Rahim into a backfoot defence. However, the soft-handed stroke by the 36-year-old meant that the ball bounced beneath the bat and spun backwards behind the crease. Even though the Kookaburra was traveling at an angle and was under no threat of hitting the stumps, Rahim instinctively opened his palm and parried the ball away from the pitch, provoking the Black Caps to instantly go up in loud appeal. The decision was sent upstairs and the third umpire took little time in ruling against Rahim, making him the first batter since Michael Vaughan against India in 2001 to be given out handling the ball in Tests, albeit since 2017 the rule has been clubbed together with the obstructing the field mode of dismissal.

Interestingly, Rahim had immediately after Lunch attempted a similar move against Tim Southee, but was not quick enough to get his hand on the ball much to his good fortune. Twitterati was quick to spew all sorts of reactions on social media regarding the rare incident.  

Elite level dismissal!!

What a bizzare dismissal!

He just asked for it!

Unbelievable

What a shame!

1st ever!

Truly historic

It's just crazy

Pretty sure he wasn't aware!!

Elite list!

Rightfully Unhappy

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