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In the County Championship Division Two match between Worcestershire and Sussex, Azhar Ali was seen smashing a dead ball towards the boundary rope, which is known to be a very peculiar incident on the field of cricket. At that moment, the former Pakistan player was batting on 91, on his way to ensuring a draw for the hosts at the County Ground in Worcester.
It was during the second innings of Worcs, when the incident took place on the fifth delivery of the 87th over, bowled by Henry Crocombe. The ball slipped out of his hand and gently rolled away from Azhar Ali, who reacted instantly and hit it very hard towards the cover point region. Moments later, he was seen apologising to Sussex players and umpire as the latter signalled the delivery to be dead ball and also declared it a no-ball consequently.
Watch the video here:
Azhar Ali finished his innings on 103 not out in 294 deliveries to help Worcestershire attain a well-deserved draw in the match. Meanwhile, Sussex had a better fist of things right throughout the game as their captain and star Indian batter Cheteshwar Pujara got 136 runs off 189 deliveries. His enterprising hundred helped the team put up a first innings score of 373 in response to 264 total from Worcs earlier.
Also, Ollie Robinson picked up seven wickets for 59 runs for Sussex in the first innings and backed it up with another haul of seven wickets for 58 runs in the second innings to reduce Worcs to 251/8 as the game ended in a stalemate.