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Recently a strange situation happened in one of our cricket matches. Just wondering if you can help me in understanding the rule. The batsman willfully extended his hand towards the ball while facing it. The ball hit him on Elbow of the hand (not holding the bat). I am sure he was "Handling the ball", had it hit his palm. But since it hit the elbow, is it

  1. Considered as deliberate padding
  2. Handling the ball as the rule says "Hand" and does not specifically mentions "Palm or Elbow of hand"
  3. I am ruling out "Obstructing the field", since that comes after the fielder has fielded the ball.

If it is handling the ball, then what happens in a case where batman uses his elbow to stop the ball from going to stumps after hitting it. Is that allowed?

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  • I'm confused by this question. Is this about a batsman facing a delivery, or about a runner (after the fielder has fielded the ball)? May 16, 2015 at 1:54
  • Remember the famous (or infamous) Tendulkar lbw b. McGrath dismissal during India's tour in 1999/2000, when he shouldered the ball? That should give you enough of a clue. :-)
    – Masked Man
    May 16, 2015 at 12:11

1 Answer 1

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Hi as an umpire its got to be no 1, deliberately padding the ball. You would allow play to continue and then as soon as the ball becomes dead or the batsmen have completed a single run call and signal dead ball disallowing any runs.

If he was doing so to avoid injury he would be allowed the runs. Law 26 covers the situations around leg byes.

Law 34 covers the situation you describe about stopping the ball from hitting the wicket. He is allowed to do so, however he may not score any runs.

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