Watch: Rossouw hit wicket off a free hit after moving deep inside the crease; Siraj aborts run up
The incident highlighted a rarely applied regulation of the white-ball game, with no run allowed off a free-hit in case the batter hits the wickets before the shot.
A rare little incident from the third and final T20I of the series between India and South Africa in Indore brought the spotlight on the game's rules this Tuesday (October 4). Facing Indian seamer Mohammed Siraj, South African batter Rilee Rossouw ended up being hit wicket off a free-hit delivery.
Anticipating a yorker, Rossouw hung deep inside the batting crease to try and get underneath the delivery. But he went so far back as to hit the stumps with his two legs, leading Siraj to stop midway from going through his delivery stride and abandon bowling.
Siraj threw the ball to the side of the pitch, thinking it will now be deemed a dead ball since the batter had dislodged the stumps before facing the ball as he couldn't be declared out for it on a free-hit after the no ball. But that was an error on the Indian seamer's part.
If Siraj had gone through with the ball, the ICC-adopted MCC laws of the sport would've led to a dot ball regardless of whether Rilee Rossouw hit the ball for a maximum in his position with his two legs disturbing the stumps.
Siraj misses out on a dot ball after Rossouw's hit-wicket
Since this rule of the sport is very rarely in play, one couldn't fault Siraj too much for dropping the ball away, presuming it will be a dead ball if he delivered the ball with Rilee Rossouw's two legs already disturbing the stumps.
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But if the seamer had gone ahead with the ball, he and his team would've earned a rare kind of dot ball in what was a rampage of six-hitting at Indore for the third T20I.
A dot ball on a free-hit is highly sporadic and on top of that, Siraj's dot ball would've come with the batter having dislodged the stumps with his legs off it.
— Richard (@Richard10719932) October 4, 2022
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Since Siraj didn't go ahead with the ball, the free-hit also persisted for India, making it a heavy, unintentional mistake from the passionate cricketer. The incident is from the 17th over of the South African batting effort, where ahead of the fifth ball of the over Siraj pulled out of his delivery stride in frustration seeing Rossouw disturb the stumps.
The ICC rule accounts for the first act on the batter's part in such instances: once Rossouw had hit the stumps with his legs, any run scored off his bat wouldn't have counted off the free-hit if Siraj had simply gone ahead with the delivery.