There was confusion in the T20 Blast Final on Saturday as cricket once again proved itself the game that keeps on teaching. Will Smeed of Somerset sent a ball high in the air towards the square leg boundary, with both Jordan Cox and Daniel Bell-Drummond converging on the catch. At the last second, Bell-Drummond realised it would be Cox to take it, and went to ground to try and get out of his teammate’s way.
At first it seemed a certain wicket, but the rules of the game state, if “another fielder is grounded beyond the boundary, if the umpire considers that it was the intention of either fielder that the contact should assist in the fielding of the ball”, then it is six. That would imply that the rules were enforced incorrectly, given Bell-Drummond seemed to be doing the opposite of helping Cox take the catch.
