County Championship: Shoaib Bashir Survives A Bizarre Bowled Dismissal Due To Fallen Towel| Watch

County Championship: England's star bowler Shoaib Bashir was involved in a bizarre dismissal due to a fallen towel on the first day of the County Championship division one match against Hampshire. It occurred during the 54th over where Somerset captain Lewis Gregory won the toss and chose to bat first.

Liam Dawson (4/28) and Kyle Abbott (4/37) rattled Somerset's batting lineup as they took seven wickets apiece and Somerset was thus tottering at 136/9 after 53.2 overs. Abott then dismissed Shoaib Bashir on the first ball and then started celebrating.

But then Bashir highlighted that Abott had dropped the towel while standing at the non-strikers's end and he thus got distracted while batting. That's why the umpire declared it a dead ball and thus Bashir got a lifeline.

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Law 20.4.2.6 of the MCC says that the umpire can declare a dead ball if the batter gets distracted by noise or movement of any kind while facing a ball. This rule is applied even if the source of the distraction is from inside or outside of the match.

Watch the video here:

Kyle Abbott nearly had two wickets in two balls...

But a towel fell out of Abbott's back pocket in his delivery stride, and it was deemed a dead ball. pic.twitter.com/9jTYDoABfk

— Vitality County Championship (@CountyChamp) September 26, 2024

Kyle Abbott stars with the ball in the second innings as well

Thus according to the laws, Bashir continued batting. But he couldn't take advantage of the situation as Abott trapped him in front of the stumps after two balls and got out for a three-ball duck. Due to this, Somerset was skittled out 136 runs during the first innings.

While chasing, Hampshire scored 196 runs in the first innings on the back of Toby Albert's brilliant knock of 77 runs off 162 balls. Jack Leach (5/52) took a five-for for Somerset whereas Bashir went wicket-less while bowling 11 overs and conceded 47 runs. On the third day, Somerset had a lead of 98 runs in 45.2 overs where skipper Lewis Gregory scored an unbeaten knock of 54 runs. Abott also registered figures of 4/25 whereas Mohammed Abbas took three wickets in the 12 overs that he bowled during the second innings.