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When Graeme Smith Didn't Appeal to Get Sourav Ganguly Timed Out Despite A Six-Minute Halt

image-lomu0q68Graeme Smith | Source: X.com

In an event that took the cricketing world by surprise, Angelo Mathews, the experienced Sri Lankan batter, found himself on the wrong side of history during the ICC World Cup 2023, Match No. 39, between Sri Lanka and Bangladesh on Monday (Nov 6) at Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi. 

Mathews was declared out without even facing a delivery, after Bangladesh appealed for a timed out, leaving him visibly displeased. While this incident has taken place on 6 instances in First-Class cricket, it remains unrecorded in international cricket and it was the first time it happened in international cricket.


When Sourav Ganguly narrowly escaped the 'Timed Out' dismissal

However, there was one close encounter when Sourav Ganguly narrowly avoided becoming the first Test batter to be timed out. It all happened back in 2007 during the 3rd Test clash between India and South Africa in Cape Town.

India rode on the half-century knocks from Dinesh Karthik, Sourav Ganguly and Sachin Tendulkar to put up 414 on the board while batting first with , and South Africa managed 373 in response. With a 41-run lead and the series level at 1-1, India was in the mood to set a good target.

However, Day 4 of the game brought some drama as India lost two quick wickets with Virender Sehwag and Wasim Jaffer scoring just two and four runs respectively. At 6/2, it was time for Sachin Tendulkar to work his magic. The second wicket fell at 10:49 am, and Sachin couldn't step in before 10:48 am because he had to leave the field on Day 3 while fielding. 

So ideally VVS Laxman was supposed to go in next, but he was busy in the shower and hence Sourav Ganguly had to step up, and he was totally unprepared because he didn't expect to be batting with 2 wickets down. He had to rush to change out of his tracksuit. When he finally got to the pitch, it was 10:49 am, a whole 6 minutes late - three more than the ICC's usual 3-minute limit.

In that scenario, if South Africa had made an appeal, Ganguly might have been declared timed out. However, then South Africa captain, Graeme Smith, chose not to appeal when the umpire clarified the 'exceptional circumstances' behind the delay. 

Interestingly, a message had been relayed to the dressing room that Sachin wouldn't be available to bat at that moment due to his earlier absence from the field, but the message never reached the Indian team. Ideally, someone else should have been on standby in case 2 wickets fell while Sachin wasn't allowed to bat.  

Later on, Ganguly managed to pull off 46 runs, and Rahul Dravid wasn't far behind with 47. But, aside from these two, the rest of the batting lineup didn't deliver. Team India crumbled, scoring just 169 runs, handing South Africa an achievable target, which they did manage to chase down, winning the match by five wickets and securing the series with a 2-1 score. Ganguly must be thanking his lucky stars he didn't get timed out back then.