Run out is a part and parcel of cricket and most of the run-outs are not really surprising because they come as a result of great fielding efforts, but there have been some really strange run-outs in the cricket history in the past where the batsman has not been run out by a great fielding effort, but he has run himself out because of his own silly mistake.
Here are the 3 strangest run-outs in cricket history –
#1 Amit Mishra vs Rajasthan Royals, IPL 2013
This was probably the strangest of them all because it came after three consecutive efforts by the fielding team and the batsman never even tried to get back into his crease. It was an incident of IPL 2013 where Amit Mishra was batting against the Rajasthan Royals fast bowler James Faulkner.
Mishra missed the delivery and the wicket-keeper Sanju Samson tried to run him out from behind the stumps as Mishra was out of his crease. Samson missed his target and the ball reached Faulkner who, then, threw back at the stumps, and Mishra, surprisingly, was still out of his crease.
Fortunately for Mishra, even Faulkner missed his target and when the target was missed for the second time, Mishra thought he was absolutely safe and he still didn’t try to get himself back into the crease. The keeper Samson had a third go at the stumps and Rajasthan Royals proved to be the lucky third time around.
It was just an extremely bizarre run-out and everyone was shocked at the carelessness of Mishra.
#2 Allan Donald vs Australia, World Cup 1999
Lance Klusener, with two boundaries against Damien Fleming in the last over of the semi-final against Australia, had got the scores leveled and was just one run away from powering South Africa to the final of the World Cup. South Africa had just one wicket in hand and it was Allan Donald who was batting with Klusener at the other end.
It was important for South Africa to win the game as a tied game would have meant Australia’s qualification since the Kangaroos had beaten South Africa in the group stage. With just one run needed and all the fielders up, everyone expected Klusener to hit the ball over the top and finish the game with a boundary.
But, as it turned out, the left-hander pushed the ball towards mid-off and tried to go for a quick single. The ball went straight to the fielder and the non-striker Allan Donald, rather than responding to Klusener’s call, was busy in ball-watching. Finally, when Donald decided to go for the run, it was too late.
The ball was thrown to the Australian wicket-keeper Adam Gilchrist who took the bails off and Australia made it to the final.
#3 India vs Sri Lanka, 2002
Virender Sehwag was smacking the ball to all corners and was batting on 47 when he played a square cut towards deep point and having seen a fielder being positioned at the boundary, Sehwag started jogging for a single safely assuming that he would reach the non-striker’s end by the time the throw would come.
But, Sehwag didn’t realize that he had not even covered a two-third distance of the pitch when the throw reached the Sri Lankan wicket-keeper Kumar Sangakkara who saw that Sehwag was unaware of the situation and he threw the ball towards the non-striker’s end.
It turned out to be a direct hit and Sehwag was found short of his crease.
