Photo: Collected
The third T20 of the series against the West Indies produced a run-out rarely seen — and its victim was Tilak Varma, through his own sheer carelessness. Having left his crease after the shot, Tilak was walking back in a completely relaxed manner, without any hurry. The opposing bowler did not waste a moment in seizing the opportunity; as soon as he received the ball from the wicketkeeper, he broke the stumps. So Tilak was incredibly run out before he could reach the crease!
The incident took place in the 17th over of India’s innings, with the West Indies’ Gudakesh Motie bowling. Axar Patel flicked a full toss from him on the leg side hard. The two batters took a single, but immediately afterwards came to the middle of the pitch and began talking. Assuming the ball had crossed the boundary for four, they did not even try for a second run; instead, the two shook hands. Axar then started walking towards his own crease.
In fact, the ball had not gone for four. Keemo Paul dived near the boundary and stopped it. As the ball then kept rolling towards the boundary, Paul got up, picked it up again and threw it to wicketkeeper Shai Hope. Realising what was happening, Axar Patel quickly grounded his bat in the crease to avoid being run out. But Tilak was still walking with his back to the action, so he noticed nothing. Hope sent the ball to Motie, who was standing at the bowler’s end. Tilak was still quite far from his crease, walking back slowly. At that very moment, Motie took the ball, broke the wicket and appealed for the run-out.
As the on-field umpire could not make sense of what had happened, he referred the decision to the third umpire. The TV umpire first checked whether Pooran had stopped the ball cleanly at the boundary. After being satisfied on that point, he looked at the run-out footage and, after watching the replay, declared Tilak out. Tilak left the field shaking his head in frustration at losing his wicket in this way despite being well set at the crease. Coach Gautam Gambhir, sitting in the dugout, was not at all pleased with the matter either.
Such a scene is not new, however. A similar incident was seen in the 2011 India-England Test at Trent Bridge, where England’s Ian Bell was run out in exactly this way. Thinking Eoin Morgan’s shot had gone for four, he left his crease and walked towards Morgan to talk. But an Indian fielder threw the ball in before it touched the boundary rope, and Mahendra Singh Dhoni ran Bell out. Dhoni later withdrew the run-out appeal, however, and Bell continued batting.
In the match, India posted a challenging total of 223 runs in their allotted 20 overs against the West Indies.
