You are a TV viewer and avid cricket fan. During a cricket match, a spinner has drawn a batsmen out of the crease but in doing so has bowled a wide. The wicketkeeper has meanwhile broken the stumps.
How will you as a TV viewer know if it is a "run out" or a "stumped out" case?
Of course, like me you do not have the patience to wait for the score card nor are you a student of the rules of the game.
Any comments?
Naresh
My call would be 'stumped out'.
ReplyDeleteIt is surely a little tricky (hence good riddle), since it hinges on if the TV viewer (as asked) decides whether the batsman was trying to 'run' (with / without connecting bat to ball) or only was 'drawn out' in an attempt to connect and score runs. Based on givens, I have decided former. Hence, 'stumped'.
Corollary: Ball is only 'declared' wide if nothing of this sort happens. In case of it being collected or it being lost by wicketkeeper and batsmen running, it is still called a wide, but there are wide-runs or bye-runs or run-outs resulting as the case maybe.
Now I need to know 2 things:
1. Am I right?
2. If the batsman is run out on a wide ball, is it still a 'not counted' ball or it suddenly becomes a valid ball, since it fetched a wicket?
Anand,
ReplyDelete1. You are right. The viewer is always right, so what if it is not within the narrow confines of law.
2. Under the power of the umpires to annul a decision, it is possible to grant a run out and annul the wide ball decision.
My guess on the riddle (and I am unsure of the exact status of law) is that this is a question of "TIME". Therefore, as a viewer if I see the umpires conferring, then I know that, firstly, they are deciding on the doubt raised. Next, if the leg umpire signals out then it is stumped and if the governing umpire signals out then it amounts to an annulment of the "wide" decision and a "run out" is being ruled.
I am sure the correct interpretation should be possible to acquire from the cricket crazy world-wide-web today.