An Africa Cup T20I clash between Ghana and Sierra Leone today (December 18) witnessed both an obstructing the field and a timed out dismissal, and each involved the same two cricketers on either side.
The first incident occurred when Sierra Leone batter Abbas Jibra fell down and blocked a pitch at bat. He defended Godfred Bakwenyam’s right arm on the pitch and attempted a single run, but was in danger of being thrown away by the bowler. After initially leaving the pitch, he ran back to the ball and his foot touched the ball as the bowler bent down to pick it up, preventing a run-out. Bakwenyam then clutched his hand in pain.
Ghana appealed, and after deliberation, the referee sent off Zibra.
In the second innings, Ghana’s captain Samson Aweah was sent off after being bowled by a sharp yorker, and Bakwenyam was sent off in an unusual manner. More than two minutes passed between the fall of the wicket and Bakwenyam’s turn, and just as Jibra was about to finish his over, the objection was raised. The referee raised his finger and Bakwenyam was sent off.
The cause of the delay is not clear, but the score ticker on the live stream initially indicated that the over was complete before correctly indicating that one ball remained. Before Bakwenyam’s appearance, a Sierra Leone fielder can be seen running towards the referee, who is then seen staring at the clock. After Bakwenyam is given out, a fielder is seen slapping him on the wrist. Bakwenyam then had a discussion with the square leg referee, but was sent off.
The match was exciting as Ghana chased 112 to win with two balls and two wickets to spare. Due to Sierra Leone’s loss, they missed out on advancing to the semi-finals and will instead face Botswana and Uganda. The latter recently qualified for next year’s T20 World Cup, but not everything went their way in the tournament, losing to Rwanda by two points in the opening match. They defeated Botswana by 10 wickets and booked a place in the final against Kenya.
Field blocks and timeout ejections have both surfaced recently. At the 2023 World Cup, Angelo Matthews became the first batsman in the history of international cricket to be given a time-out in the match between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. Bangladesh’s Mushfiqur Rahim became the first Test batsman in more than 70 years to block a pitch after deflecting a ball that hit the stumps with his hand in a match against New Zealand.
This incident was the first time-lapse dismissal in T20I. It is also believed that this is the first time that a player has been sent off for a time violation in a top league match, and the only time that he has been sent off for pitch interference.
Watch the two incidents below:
Obstructing the field dismissal
error 404
Timed out dismissal parts one, two and three:
error 404
error 404
error 404
