Ryan ten Doeschate sticks to gentleman’s code of cricket
Essex captain Ryan ten Doeschate put up a brilliant endorsement for cricket being a gentleman’s game after he withdrew an appeal for a run-out after the bowler had crashed with the non-striker at the bowling end with a fielder removing the bails to complete the dismissal.
It all happened when Middlesex batsmen John Simpson and Stevie Eskinazi attempted to take a quick single of Neil Wagner’s bowling after the latter had mistimed the ball towards midoff. Wagner, trying to reach out to the ball went towards the other side of the pitch where Simpson was looking at the ball before deciding on completing the single.
However, the two crashed into each other and with Eskinazi stranded at the non-striker’s end, Aaron Beard completed the run-out taking off the bails at the batsmen’s end. Neither of the two batsmen were happy with the manner in which the dismissal took place but Doeschate soon withdrew the appeal.
While it did leave a few fans confused as to why the scoreboard didn’t read otherwise, the withdrawal was completely done by abiding the rule book. “Neither umpire shall give a batsman out, even though he may be out under the Laws, unless appealed to by a fielder”, states subsection 1 of Law 27 (Appeals). Marylebone Cricket Club’s laws (under subsection 8 of Law 27) also state that the captain of a fielding side can withdraw an appeal after it’s made (here in the form of removing the bails), if he feels so.”