Picture Credit: BBL
If you think you have seen it all in cricket, the sport continues to deliver more and more. The T20 format has developed an uncanny habit of producing bizarre stuff on the field and what happened during Big Bash League on Wednesday was nothing short of outrageous.
After an incredible contest, Sydney Sixers needed 1 run off 2 balls and this is when a never-seen-before sequence of events happened. Jordan Silk seemed to be in some discomfort and he informed the umpire about the same.
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When Adelaide Strikers' captain Peter Siddle got to know about this, he seemed to be taken by surprise but he did not really make a fuss about it since Silk would have been at non-striker's end. So the batsman was eventually allowed to retire hurt and out walked Sixers' assistant coach Jay Lenton to join hands with Hayden Kerr.
The task was simple for him: Just run! And this is exactly what he did. After Kerr smashed a shot towards deep mid-wicket, the two batters in the middle ran quickly to put pressure on the fielder. They did the job brilliantly as the fielder felt the nerves and eventually fumbled with the ball eventually going to the boundary as Sixers sealed their spot in the grand finale.
Watch the bizarre sequence of events here:
Why was Sixers' assistant coach allowed to walk out in the middle?
Ahead of the match, Sydney Sixers' wicketkeeper-batsman Josh Philippe tested positive for COVID-19. With no other player available in the pool of replacements to keep wickets, the side made a request to the concerned authorities to let them include assistant coach Jay Lenton into the playing XI as a wicket-keeper.
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Since the position in question was a specialist one (wicket-keeper), the permission was granted under bizarre circumstances and the 31-year-old made the debut for Men in Pink, which will go down in the history of cricket as one of the most unexpected debuts.
"It's got a nice ring to it, the assistant coach who is playing! I found out at around 1 o'clock today. Everything went through the process. The last time I played at a game was at the Thunder camp, which was before Christmas. The last game before Christmas,” Lenton had said on his dramatic inclusion before the match.