South Africa’s opening game at the ongoing T20 World Cup 2022 ended in a no result against Zimbabwe on Monday (October 24). The Proteas were robbed of a deserving victory as rain played spoilsport in the contest at the Bellerive Oval in Hobart.
The game was reduced to a nine overs-a-side contest after a delayed start due to rain with Zimbabwe opting to bat first. South African pacers were on the money as they ran through Zimbabwe’s top order before a crucial partnership between Wesley Madhevere (35) and Milton Shumba (18) helped them put 79 runs on the board.
In reply, South Africa got off to a fiery start as opener Quinton de Kock went berserk with the bat from the word go. He took the Zimbabwe bowlers to the cleaners en route to a quickfire 47 off 18 balls. South Africa raced to 51/0 inside just three overs riding on De Kock’s blitzkrieg.
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However, rain halted play once again as the game eventually ended in no result with the Proteas despite the target being revised to 64 runs in 7 overs. South Africa needed just 13 runs to win with 4 overs and all ten wickets in hand. While it was a disappointing day for South African players, their misery was further intensified after a rare five-run penalty during Zimbabwe’s innings following the rain-delayed start.
Zimbabwe were awarded five runs after an unintentional mistake by De Kock on the ground. The incident happened on the third delivery of the ninth over during Zimbabwe’s innings when Shumba miscued a reverse scoop against Anrich Nortje and the ball went to Lungi Ngidi at fine leg.
Ngidi made no mistakes and threw it back towards De Kock, who had taken his right glove to be ready for a throw in case of a run-out chance. However, the ball touched De Kock’s glove lying on the ground before hitting his pad.
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The ball then lobbed off to the glove again and was stopped. The ball was also deemed a dead delivery as the ICC rules state that if a ball strikes any protective gear – helmet or any other object placed on the ground during play, it should be declared a dead ball, and the umpire reserves the right to penalise the bowling team of five runs.
“If the ball while in play strikes the protective helmet (or any other object placed by the fielding team on the ground), the ball shall immediately become dead and, the umpire shall signal No ball or Wide to the scorers, if applicable, and, the umpire shall award 5 Penalty runs to the batting side,” states MCC’s law 28.3.2.
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