In Tests, England batsman Leonard Hutton was the first player to be dismissed for obstructing the field, while playing against South Africa in August 1951.[5] Between January 1957 and March 2001, six different players were dismissed for handling the ball, the most common form of an unusual dismissal.[6] Sri Lanka cricketers Marvan Atapattu and Mahela Jayawardene are the only Test players to be dismissed retired out, when playing against Bangladesh in 2001. Sri Lanka's captain, Sanath Jayasuriya, received strong criticism for the team's act.[7][8]
Russell Endean, the South African wicketkeeper, was involved in both of the first two unusual dismissials. First came his involvement in Len Hutton's "obstructing the field" dismissal: Endean was prevented from attempting a catch, when Hutton used his bat to prevent the ball landing on his stumps after he had edged it up in the air. (Guarding his stumps being the only circumstance in which a ball can legally be hit twice: so Hutton came close to that form of dismissal too, if the umpire had ruled that the ball was not in fact headed towards the wicket.) Six years later, in similar circumstances after edging the ball up in the air and seeing it drop towards his stumps, Endean used his free hand instead of his bat to intercept the ball, and was given out "handled ball". The second "handled ball" dismissal was more unfortunate: Andrew Hilditch, at the non-striker's end, picked up the stationary ball to hand it back to a fielder, the only instance of a non-striker suffering this dismissal. All subsequent instances of "handled the ball" have been more similar to Endean's, with a batsman using his free hand to guard his stumps.
In men's ODIs, eleven players have been dismissed on twelve occasions in an unusual manner. The first such occasion was when India's Mohinder Amarnath was given out for handling the ball, against Australia in February 1986. The following year, Pakistan cricketer Rameez Raja became the first player to be given out for obstructing the field in ODIs: with the match lost, but himself on a score of 98, he attempted two runs off the final ball and used his bat to deliberately block a run-out attempt when going for the second run that would have got him a century. In 1989, Amarnath was dismissed in a similar fashion, kicking the ball away to prevent a run-out attempt, while playing in a match against Sri Lanka, thus becoming the first player to be dismissed by two different unusual methods.[5] Obstructing the field has been the most common method of unusual dismissal in men's ODIs, happening on eight of the twelve occasions.
The first instance of an unusual dismissal in T20Is occurred in June 2017, when England's Jason Roy was given out obstructing the field in a match against South Africa.[34]
The T20I between Ghana and Sierra Leone on 17 December 2023 is notable for featuring two separate unusual dismissals. First, Sierra Leone's Abass Gbla made intentional contact with Ghana's Godfred Bakiweyem while Bakiweyem was attempting to run Gbla out, resulting in Gbla being given out obstructing the field. Later, Bakiweyem himself failed to be ready to receive the next ball in the stipulated time following the dismissal of Samson Awiah and was given out timed out.
In women's ODI cricket, there have been two instances of unusual dismissals: the first came in an ODI match between Sri Lanka and the West Indies in April 2010.[54] Sri Lanka wicket-keeperDilani Manodara was retired out due to her slow scoring rate in her team's first innings, having taken 70 minutes and 39 balls to score 8 runs.[55] The most recent instance of an unusual dismissal happened when India's Thirush Kamini was given out for obstructing the field in a match against West Indies in 2016.[56]
Women's T20I cricket has seen many instances of unusual dismissals. The most unique one came in a match of the 2025 Women's T20 World Cup Asia Qualifier when 10 United Arab Emirates players retired out. The tournament situation made winning vitally important and rain started to fall in the 16th over. Having already scored 192-0 they asked to declare, which is not allowed in the format, prompting the successive retirements to end their innings 4 overs early to save time. They won the game by 163 runs after bowling out Qatar for 29 in 11.1 overs.[58][59]
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