Stars vs Thunder in Canberra

Sam Billings, on 18, plays a cut shot for a quick single to Joel Paris, who had a ping at the bowler’s end stumps and landed a direct hit, to which Marcus Stoinis and Peter Siddle half-heartedly said “Howzat”, and the umpire asked if they were appealing for a run-out to send it to the third umpire, to which Stoinis said “Well no, don’t worry” and it never went any further.

All the while, the Thunder came back for the second run off the ricochet, for which a couple of Stars players complained to Paris for having a shot at the stumps when Billings was seemingly always going to make his ground…

So two balls later, the Fox Cricket commentators went to the replay, and revealed that Billings was actually run-out on that direct hit:

Which led to Brett Lee moaning about the fact that he wasn’t out, but under Law 31.1, the umpire cannot give a player out in that scenario:

“Neither umpire shall give a batter out, even though he/she may be out under the Laws, unless appealed to by a fielder. This shall not debar a batter who is out under any of the Laws from leaving the wicket without an appeal having been made.”

And then the Fox Cricket crew tortured Glenn Maxwell on the player mic that Billings was actually run-out, to which Maxwell replied:

“Yeah, seems about right”

Of course this is the Big Bash, so Billings went on to score 72 and got Player of the Match and the Thunder won by 18 runs.

And that’s why the Melbourne Stars are a winless pile of arse.

Also a fun note – There was a similar incident between the Stars and Thunder in the second BBL match ever played in December 2011, when Matthew Wade kicked the ball at the stumps when David Warner was hurrying through for a single, and while Warner seemingly made his ground, the replay showed the mid-air Warner hadn’t grounded anything in the crease before the ball hit the stumps.

But once again, the Stars didn’t appeal for the run out, and Warner finished unbeaten on 102, the first century in the history of the Big Bash League.