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Direct hit penalised  "I recently saw an example of really brilliant fielding. The batsman hit the ball and called for a quick single.
A fielder made a lot of ground very quickly, picked up the ball, and threw it on the run, with only one stump
to aim at. The ball hit the stumps at the bowler's end. There was an appeal for Run out, which was not given because the batsman had made good his ground.
Meanwhile, the ball had richocheted off the stumps and ran into the deep and the batsmen ran another two. This doesn't seem fair. "There is a strong argument for rewarding such brilliant fielding by declaring the ball dead - though this is not one of the ways that Law 20 permits the umpire to call Dead ball. But there are also occasions when a fielder throws down the stumps when there is no possibility of dismissing a batsman. Should the batting side be denied the chance of taking further runs when the fielding is poor? Read more about Law 20 (Dead ball) at the MCC website | ||||||