IND vs AUS: 'Wide' delivery by Shami declared 'No-ball' surprises everyone; confusion explained

The Indian spearhead Mohammed Shami bowled a seemingly wide ball during the second Test of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy, but the on-field umpire declared it as a no-ball instead. This triggered a disbelief among players present on the field. Notably, the facial expressions of Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara in particular garnered everyone's attention.

India are taking on Australia in the ongoing Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2023, in the second Test at the Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi. The hosts are leading the Test series by 1-0 over Australia after a dominating victory in the first Test in Nagpur.

Meanwhile, Shami kept up his sublime run with the ball and bagged a four-fer to put the hosts in command yet again in the second Test. However, at one stage this incident occurred during his bowling spell which left everyone stumped for a moment.

Confusion over Mohammed Shami's delivery explained

For the uninitiated Mohammed Shami came on to bowl the third over of the match. At that moment, Shami started his run-up to bowl a delivery to Aussie opener, David Warner, but probably the ball slipped out from his hands and it ended up pitching outside the wide mark. The entire trajectory of this delivery was so bizarre that it even left Virat Kohli and Cheteshwar Pujara, who were standing in their respective slip corners, completely bewildered.

However, if this wasn't enough, what caught everyone's attention was the decision of the on-field umpire Nitin Menon. While it appreared to be a wide-ball to the naked eye, Menon didn't hesitate to declare this weird delivery as a no-ball. The reason for this decision was explained later.

According to Article 21.13 of the ICC in relation to the no-ball rule, if the ball travels completely or partially off the pitch, after crossing the batsman, the ball will be termed as an illegal delivery. And that's exactly what had happened with this delivery by Shami, according to Menon.

Speaking about the match, Australia once again won the toss and opted to bat first. They started on a much more confident note with the bat against the Indian bowlers, but it didn't take the hosts much time to make inroads, as both teams went for Lunch with Australia's first innings score reading 94/3 in 25 overs. Thereafter, Handscomb held one end to bail Australia out of a sudden collapse triggered by Ashwin. Consequently, Australia were bowled out for a respectable total of 263 on the board. In response, team India has started cautiously with all wickets remaining intact with 21 runs on the board at stumps on Day 1.

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