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Imagine, the fielder runs towards the ropes trying to stop a six, and catches the ball right near the ropes. But his momentum carries him outside the boundary. So, to stop a six, he throws it up in the air, before his feet touch the ground outside.
So far, this is something many fielders have done.

But, suppose his throw of the ball is not strong enough , so the ball after going up, comes down and is still falling down towards the ground outside boundary. So, the fielder just jumps up and while in the air, catches the ball and throws it back up. When the ball comes down, he does it again. He keeps doing that, juggling the ball while ensuring he is in the air , each time he catches the ball and throws it up, till his teammate who is inside the boundary reaches near the rope. Then he can jump up a final time , catch the ball while in the air and throw it back to his teammate's hand who is inside the boundary. So, even though the player did touch the ground outside the boundary multiple times , he only did so BETWEEN each touch of the ball, and never WHILE being in contact with the ball.

Would this catch be legal? Can he keep on juggling the ball in such a fashion, till his teammate comes to help and complete the catch ?

As far as i can tell, there is nothing in the rules that forbid it.

His last touch with the ground BEFORE his first contact with the ball was inside the boundary area, and at no point was he in contact with the ball WHILE he was touching the ground outside.

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  • What about their last contact with the ground between the first and second, or second and third, or.. ? Are you saying they never land amongst all this juggling or that they return to the field and jump again from there?
    – Nij ♦
    Jul 27, 2021 at 18:54
  • @Nij I am saying that the rule does not forbid contact with ground between 1st and 2nd contact or 2nd and 3rd etc. The rule only forbids contact with ground outside boundary BEFORE the first contact with the ball, or WHILE holding the ball.
    – silverrahul
    Jul 27, 2021 at 19:49
  • You have missed the point. Answering your own question doesn't make the question clearer. Does the question concern the situation where the player never touched the ground outside the boundary, or only touches that ground between each touch of the ball.
    – Nij ♦
    Jul 27, 2021 at 23:36
  • @Nij My question concerns the latter situation. The player only touches the ground outside the boundary between each touch of the ball. I thought that was clear from my description. I will try to edit it to make it clearer
    – silverrahul
    Jul 28, 2021 at 6:27
  • I'm not aware of an actual catch that precisely meets the description, but this catch by Glenn Maxwell is pretty close - Maxwell touches the ball inside the boundary, throws it up, touches the ground outside the boundary and then jumps from outside the boundary, catching the ball in the air before landing back in the field of play; this was correctly ruled as a good catch. (There may be country limitations on that video, search for "Glenn Maxwell boundary catch" if you can't watch that one).
    – Philip Kendall ♦
    Jul 28, 2021 at 11:10

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I believe this would be a legal catch. The exact wording of the relevant law (19.5.2) is:

A fielder who is not in contact with the ground is considered to be grounded beyond the boundary if his/her final contact with the ground, before his/her first contact with the ball after it has been delivered by the bowler, was not entirely within the boundary.

As you say, all their contacts with the ground outside the boundary were after their first contact with the ball, so they are not considered grounded beyond the boundary. Finally, as the ball was eventually held by a fielder inside the boundary, it is a legal catch.

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    The logic is that you must start and finish the catch inside the field of play and not be touching ball and ground outside the field of play at the same time.
    – Ben Whyall
    Jul 30, 2021 at 13:58

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