South Africa and Zimbabwe faced each other in their opening match of the ongoing ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2022 on Monday.

Zimbabwe posted 79/5 in a nine-overs per-side contest due to rain, and in reply, the Proteas were cruising to victory after smashing 51/0 in just three overs. However, the rain had some other plans as it came down heavily again, forcing the umpires to call off the game, awarding both sides a point each.

During the match, an incident caught everyone’s attention when the on-field umpire awarded Zimbabwe five runs in a penalty after the ball touched Quinton de Kock’s gloves, which were lying on the ground.

It all happened in the final over of Zimbabwe’s innings, bowled by pacer Anrich Nortje. The South African pacer bowled a full-length delivery, which Zimbabwe’s Milton Shumba tried to scoop but ended up sending to the fine leg. Keeper De Kock had removed his gloves in anticipation of gathering the ball for a quick throw. But the long throw from Lungi Ngidi hit the glove piece lying on the ground.

The on-field umpire noticed it and immediately awarded five penalty runs to Zimbabwe, leaving South African players in shoc?k. Notably, the rules also specify that in occurrence of such an incident, umpire has the right to call it a dead ball and penalise the fielding side with five runs.

According to MCC’s Law 28.3.2, “If the ball while in play strikes the protective helmet (or any other object placed by the fielding team on the ground), the ball shall immediately become dead and, the umpire shall signal No ball or Wide to the scorers, if applicable, and, the umpire shall award 5 penalty runs to the batting side”.

Here’s the video:

Is it just me, or does anyone else think that the umpire here looks like Messi? 😜#T20WorldCup2022 pic.twitter.com/wBLu67FHZp

— Prashant Bhansali (@prashant280294) October 24, 2022

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