Zampa's runout attempt, Neser's amazing catch and the drama of cricket laws

Adam Zampa attempted a run out at the non-striker's end when the batter was backing up too much. Even after being called a Mankad-er, the decision was not in his favour. We try to find out why

The new year in Australia's Big Bash League brought with it a predicament on whether the cricket laws are more confusing or their interpretations. 

The first incident where law befuddled the crowd was when Michael Neser of Brisbane Heat caught Sydney Sixer’s Jordan Silk outside the boundary ropes, released the ball in the air, jumped inside the boundary, got airborne and caught the ball again and then released the ball while being in the air. In the next move, he jumped into the field of play and caught the ball the third time.  

For anyone who watches cricket, this seemed like not out because the player was outside the boundary ropes while in contact with the ball. But Glenn Maxwell, the Australian allrounder explained the scenario from the commentary box as followed. 

He said that though the fielder was inside the boundary ropes while catching, his feet (or any part of the body or uniform) were not touching the ground and thereby it was not a six. Therefore the batter was given out. This is according to the rules of the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC), the makers and guardians of the laws of cricket. 

Two days later, on January 03, Adam Zampa of Melbourne Stars, another franchise in the league, attempted a run out against Tom Rogers of the Melbourne Renegades during a Melbourne Derby. The attempted run-out was at the non-striker’s end as the Rogers was backing up too far. 

Zampa removed the bails while in his bowling action and Rogers was outside the crease. Yet, it was called not out, leaving cricket fans stunned once again. ICC has legalised such a run out when the bowler removes the bails before completing his action if the non-striker backs up ahead of the popping crease, trying to steal a quick run. 

The appeal was taken to the third umpire and he ruled it not out. The reason was later explained by MCC. In a tweet, the lawmaking body explained, “The non-striker can be run out if he/she is out of his/her ground up until the moment the bowler would normally have been expected to release the ball. That means when the arm gets to its highest point. The bowler is *not* entitled to go all the way around in the bowling action and then run the non-striker out.”

Since Zampa’s arm had gone past the perpendicular, meaning he had completed his bowling action, therefore his attempt to run out was termed illegal. 

Rules apart, Zampa was called out by his Stars coach David Hussey, who said that it was not the right way to play cricket. But then there were others like India's Ravichandran Ashwin, West Indies' Brian Lara and South Africa's Tabraiz Shamsi who came to Zampa’s rescue and called his attempt a legitimate try to run out a batter. 

Zampa did not regret attempting the run-out, though his team lost the game after Tom Rogers picked up his career-best figures of 5/16 to limit the Stars at 108/9 while defending 141. 

“I don’t regret doing it, I guess I’m a Mankad-der now. I have a regret of maybe putting my finger up as soon as I did it and giving it out straight away. I don’t know what the answer is with the Mankad; I made the decision at the time because I felt that Tom Rogers was gaining an advantage,” Zampa told Fox Cricket after the game. 

“I felt like I’d bowled a good enough ball to be bowling to the tailender but the batsman got back on strike, hence why I did it. Would I do it differently I don’t know, I’m a really competitive guy,” he added.