Stats: Batsmen who have been dismissed for "obstructing the field" in International cricket

Jason Roy, who hasn’t been in the best of forms struck a brilliant 67 against South Africa to take his side towards a series win in the 2nd T20I of the 3-match series but was dismissed in an unusual fashion. Joy who aimed for a quick single but was sent back by the striker Liam Livingstone. In order to get back to his crease, Roy changed his direction of running and came in the way of the throw at the non-striker’s end.

The South Africans appealed over this act and the third umpire ruled Roy out after which England failed to score and fell 3 runs short of the South African total. Thus Jason Roy became the first ever player in T20I format to be dismissed in that fashion. Overall, there are 7 other “obstructing the field” dismissals recorded so far in International cricket.

England’s Leonard Hutton was ruled out obstructing the field when he top-edged a ball and put his bat again to save his stumps getting dislodged but in this process, he obstructed the wicket-keeper and became the first ever player in International cricket to be given out on obstructing the field way back in 1952. He still remains the only player with such dismissal in the longer format of the game.

Some well-known obstructing field dismissals are of Inzamam-ul-Haq and Ben Stokes as they both tried to protect themselves in a follow-through throws at their wickets. Inzamam blocked Suresh Raina’s throw in an ODI in 2006 by playing a proper defence shot while Stokes, the recent of the previous 7 such dismissals gloved a throw aimed at him by Starc in his follow-through.

Javed Miandad and Mohinder Amarnath were dismissed for obstructing the field in the 80s when they kicked the ball blocking the fielder from affecting a runout. The likes of Mohammad Hafeez and Anwar Ali were ruled out in the same fashion like Roy, who changed their direction while running and ended up blocking the fielders’ throws.

List of “obstructing the field” dismissals in International cricket:

Jason Roy, in fact, became the 8th batsman in Twenty20 cricket to be dismissed obstructing the field. The famous of the previous 7 was Yusuf Pathan’s in the 2013 IPL where he kicked the ball to save himself from getting run out.

List of “obstructing the field” dismissals in Twenty20 cricket:

(Stats as on 23 June 2017)