NZ vs AUS | Twitter in splits as Green-Hazlewood's senile running leaves umpires befuddled over cricket laws

SportsCafe Desk

BySportsCafe Desk, SportsCafe Editor

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The Elite Panel of Umpires is as exclusive a list as Test-nations featuring the very best, yet even two of its most esteemed members struggled to make sense of the shenanigans in Wellington. The last wicket Australian pair mindlessly ran across the creases in a cat-and-mouse game of taking strike.

‌Centurion Cameron Green took to the field on Day 2 of the opening Test against New Zealand with the responsibility to stretch Australia's overnight score of 279/9 as far along as possible by hogging strike from tailender Josh Hazlewood. The youngster began on a positive note by striking a gorgeous boundary in the first over he faced off Matt Henry but all chaos broke loose soon after such that the visitors faced the risk of being penalized five runs for their on-field antics.

On the last ball off the 88th over, Hazlewood confidently clipped a full ball off his pads in the gap between short-midwicket and forward square-leg and the batters sprinted across in search of two easy runs. However, the fielders converged upon the Kookaburra quicker than the Australian duo had anticipated, making them believe only a single run was on offer which would leave Hazlewood on strike in the ensuing over. Determined to avoid such a scenario, the two batters returned to their respective creases despite just being a couple of yards from the other end and sported huge grins on their faces given the absurd sequence of events.

Unfortunately, the retirement-bound Marais Erasmus and his partner Michael Gough seemed to have a mind to wipe those smiles off given a potential breach of Law 18.5.1 which states, "If either umpire considers that one or both batsmen deliberately ran short at that umpire's end, the umpire concerned shall, when the ball is dead, call and signal Short run and inform the other umpire of what has occurred and apply [five penalty runs]."

However, given neither batter had grounded his bat inside the crease at the other end, the two umpires let the Men from Down Under get away scot-free after a lengthy discussion lasting over a couple of minutes. All said and done, the incident did spark a flurry of amusing reactions on Twitter.

Whats going on!

Some more please

Priority

But for what?

One job for him

Waiting for it

Four added

TWo powerful teams

Good dream

The list

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