Fielder throws the ball for four, Afghan team penalised for intentional misfield

The Afghanistan Cricket team was penalised by on-field umpires Hashmatullah Shahidi intentionally threw the ball to the boundary for a four, even as the ball stopped on the boundary lines on its own. 

The incident occurred on day three when Sikandar Raza, batting on 79, dug out a yorker past the extra cover and the ball reached the boundary lines. When the ball reached the boundary lines and it stopped there, Shahidi deliberately put his one feet past the boundary line and collected the ball to make it a boundary and keep Raza away from the strike in the next over. 

Raza was batting with number 10 Blessing Muzarabani and the Afghani team wanted Muzrabani to remain on strike. The umpires Ahmed Shah Pakteen and Aleem Dar decided to rule this as intentional on the part of the fielding team and awarded one extra run to Zimbabwe. 

The decision was taken according to rule 19.8 of The Laws of Cricket, which stays, ‘If the boundary results from an overthrow or from the willful act of a fielder, the runs scored shall be any runs for penalties awarded to either side and the allowance for the boundary and the runs completed by the batsmen, together with the run in progress if they had already crossed at the instant of the throw or act.’

 In the match, the Zimbabwe team got all out for 287 wit Raza top-scoring (85). Following on, Sean Williams’ men have gained a lead of eight runs thanks to a brilliant unbeaten 124 run partnership between skipper Williams and Donald Tiripano. At the end of Day four, Zimbabwe were 266-7.