So, was batsman given out or not out?

UNLIKE England captain Eoin Morgan who survived when the ball hit the stumps against Ireland on Sunday as the bails weren’t removed, Australian club cricket Jatinder Singh was not so lucky!

Singh, representing Moonee Valley in north-west Melbourne, was given out bowled even after the bails were not dislodged. The difference between his and Morgan’s? The middle stump was completely uprooted (see above).

The umpires were left wondering, considering whether to give out or not out as the bails remained serenely perched in their grooves on top of the two undisturbed stumps, seemingly wedged together in the middle.

In the end, Singh was correctly adjudged out with MCC laws stating: “The wicket is put down if a bail is completely removed from the top of the stumps, or a stump is struck out of the ground.”

Moonee Valley captain Michael Ozbun said: “We had no idea what the actual ruling on it was, but we all admired it for a few minutes.

“You probably couldn’t do that again if you tried. We weren’t sure if maybe (the stumps) were put in at a slight angle so there was just a little bit of pressure.

“When the bails were sitting on the stumps, they were in the grooves. It wasn’t like the middle of the bails were above the stumps or anything. The ball had to have hit at the exact right point that the stump didn’t fly up, it went down.” You get the feeling that a lot of club umpires would have been umming and erring about this in this country too. TCP are sure that any bowler would not be able to do this again if they tried. It certainly made us chuckle, and we’d like to see anything unusual that happens to you too, send in to newsdesk@ thecricketpaper.com