Pakistan's left-arm spinner has registered a dubious world record for giving away the most runs in any international match across formats without registering a legal delivery
Abdur Rehman
Mirpur: In a curious turn of events, Pakistan's left-arm spinner Abdur Rehman was on Tuesday barred from bowling after he delivered three consecutive beamers, leaving him with bizarre figures of 0-0-8-0 in the Asia Cup match against Bangladesh here.
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Rehman failed to deliver a legal ball as he was taken off duty by umpire Johan Cloete after he bowled three full tosses above the waist.
The Pakistani spinner, who was included in place of pacer Junaid Khan, was brought on in the 11th over, but his first ball slipped out of hand and went wide. The batsman, Imrul Kayes, took a single off the no ball.
Abdur Rehman. File Pic/AFP
The next one was also an above-the-waist full toss outside off and Kayes pulled off the front foot. It fetched the bowler a wicket but on cross checking, the on-field umpires asked the batsman to stay at the crease after they adjudged it as no-ball.
The trend continued as he bowled a similar delivery for a third straight time, forcing the umpire to take the bowler off attack.
According to the ICC's playing conditions for ODIs, a bowler will be banned from the attack if he delivers more than one full toss above the waist.
"A slow delivery which passes or would have passed on the full above shoulder height of the striker standing upright at the popping crease is to be deemed dangerous and unfair, whether or not it is likely to inflict physical injury on the striker," states Law 42.6.b.
The ICC's playing conditions for ODIs, however, supersede the MCC's Laws for international cricket and according to them, fast bowlers and spinners are treated the same.
A bowler is warned after his first waist-high full toss, and barred from bowling if he bowls a second.
Some of the other bowlers in international cricket to share this dubious distinction include Kenyan Collins Obuya, England’s David Gower and Allan Lamb, Sri Lanka’s Dhammika Prasad and West Indies’ keeper Jimmy Adams.