Who is out if both batsmen end up at the same end and at the other end fielders hit the stumps?

Question

Consider the following situation,

Batsmen A and B are playing, A is facing the ball and hits the ball inside the ground. Both of them running between the wickets and meet at the centre of the pitch, they saw that the ball is thrown to one end. The player with the ball is waiting without stumping. Then both the batsmen run towards the other end and reached the crease and then now the fielder took off the bails at the other end.

Both the batsmen don't want to give up.

Who is out at this situation according to the rules of cricket/ICC?

The stumping may be done on either A's end or B's end.

Answer 1

Law 38 (Run out), section 3:

The batsman out [...] is the one whose ground is at the end where the wicket is put down.

Law 29 (Batsman out of his ground), section 2(c):

If there is no batsman in either ground, then each ground belongs to whichever batsman is nearer to it, or, if the batsmen are level, to whichever batsman was nearer to it immediately prior to their drawing level.

Therefore, in your scenario, if the wicket is put down at A's end, A will be out, assuming they have not crossed at any point (or crossed an even number of times, thus meaning that that A is always the batsman that was last nearest to end A).

Answer 2

I don't believe either of the answers posted to be entirely correct. The crucial point is that in your scenario, both batsmen

reached the crease

At this point, Law 29.2(a) comes in effect (as opposed to 29.2(c) as quoted in Spinner's answer):

(a) If only one batsman is within a ground

(i) it is his ground

(ii) it remains his ground even if he is later joined there by the other batsman.

When the first batsman reaches the crease, it becomes his ground, and it remains his ground even when the second batsman enters the crease. It doesn't matter if the batsmen crossed or not when running, all that matters is which batsman reached the crease first.

If neither batsman had reached the crease when the wicket was put down, then 29.2(c) would apply and it would be the batsman closest to the crease who is out.

All the above assumes that the wicket is put down at B's end; if the wicket is put down at A's end, nobody is out as the first batsman to reach the crease is not out as he is in his ground, and the second batsman to reach the crease is not out as his wicket has not been put down (his wicket is at the other end).

Answer 3

This is a normal scenario in cricket and I have seen this happened many times. It was always the in-form batsman or the batsman who has already settled down there used to stay and other one used to give up. I am not sure there was any argument like that happened ever because since both players play for same team, one batsman who made the mistake used to give up.

In case both are not willing to give up and the players never crossed each other while running, the person who is not in his crease will be judged out. If they had already crossed each other, then the other person will be judged out since batsmen crossing each other means that they have switched the ends while running and they failed to make it completely to the opposite crease.

So in your case, if A had played the ball and never crossed B while running to B's crease and run out happened at A's end, A will be judged out. If they crossed in the middle pitch, B will be out. Hope that makes it clear.