Follow UsA contentious moment occurred on the last ball of the fourth over of Pakistan’s innings against India in Colombo, when opening batter Muneeba Ali was given run out by the third umpire even after initially grounding her bat.
It was a full ball from Kranti Goud, and Muneeba just nudged at it but missed and was hit on her pad. India appealed hard for the LBW, but the umpire gave it as not out. In this process, Muneeba had left the crease slightly, and it seemed on the first replay that she made it back just in the nick of time before the throw from an alert Deepti Sharma arrived from the slips.
The Indian team were getting ready to bowl the next over after that, but the umpire decided to see the replay again, and this time, it was found that Muneeba’s bat lifted just slightly above the ground, and that’s exactly when an alert Deepti’s throw smashed into her stumps. The third umpire gave it as out this time, as per rule 30.1.2 of the MCC. Skipper Fatima Sana was clearly unhappy with the decision, and a match official had to come and explain it to her as to why Muneeba was given out.
As per the law, a batter shall not be considered to be out of her ground if, in running or diving towards her ground and beyond, and having grounded some part of her person or bat beyond the popping crease, there is subsequent loss of contact between the ground and any part of her person or bat, or between the bat and person.
In this situation, since Muneeba was neither running nor diving, she was given out by the umpire who stuck to the law meticulously. It was later revealed that she was out anyways had India used their review properly, as Muneeba was LBW on that very delivery.