A ball to forget for Kagiso Rabada

After a fair amount of discussion, the umpires declared it as a dead ball, which many, including the commentators, felt was a wrong call and should have given as a no ball because Rabada had completed his normal delivery stride without any difficulty.

Where can a ball land after slipping out of the bowler’s hand when he was just about to release it? Straight into the keeper's gloves or at worst, a few yards away from the pitch right? Wrong. Believe it or not, a ball slipped out of Kagiso Rabada’s hands and ended up in the point fielder’s hands, leaving even the on-field umpires clueless during the one-off T20I between Australia and South Africa at Queensland.

After a fair amount of discussion, the umpires declared it as a dead ball, which many, including the commentators, felt was a wrong call and should have given as a no ball because Rabada had completed his normal delivery stride without any difficulty.

It happened in the 9^th over of Australia’s chase, which was also the penultimate over of the match after rain had reduced it to a 10-over a side affair. With the match already out of Australia’s reach, Glenn Maxwell was in search of some quick runs to reduce the margin of the deficit when the third ball of the 9^th over took everyone by surprise.

BALLLLL
RABADA KE BALLLLLLLLLLL 🤣🤣 #AUSvSA #RABADA pic.twitter.com/6Pf0juks01

— Aditya Adapa || 9394022222 (@BezawadaAditya) November 17, 2018

While the ball slipping out of the bowler’s hand is not an uncommon sight in cricket but it flying to the point fielder, standing some 30 yards away to the left of the bowler is certainly not an everyday occurrence.

In the match, Maxwell was Australia’s top scorer with a 23-ball 38 but it was not enough to take his side over the finishing line. South Africa scored 108 for 7 in their allotted 10 overs and in reply, Australia could only manage 87 for 7, losing the match by 21 runs.