Manipur's Lamabam Singh fell to one of cricket's rarest dismissals in the Ranji Trophy plate league match against Meghalaya in Surat - given out for hitting the ball twice in bizarre circumstances.
Lamabam had defended an Aryan Bora delivery, only to see the ball trickle back towards the stumps when he intercepted the ball with the bat. ESPNcricinfo spoke to people at the game who said the ball was headed towards the stumps when the batter hit it the second time, which is within the law, but no one, including the batter, protested the umpire's decision.
"He could've padded it away, but he chose to stop it with his bat and was immediately given out 'hit the ball twice' by umpire Dharmesh Bhardwaj," a venue official said. "The batter walked off the moment Meghalaya appealed."
Clause 34.1.1 of the MCC Laws states that a striker is out 'hit the ball twice' if, while the ball is in play, it makes contact with any part of their body or bat, and the striker then wilfully strikes it a second time with the bat or with any part of the body (other than a hand not holding the bat), before a fielder touches the ball - except when the second strike is solely to protect their wicket.
The last instance of this rare dismissal in the Ranji Trophy came in 2005-06, when Jammu & Kashmir captain Dhruv Mahajan was ruled out in similar fashion against Jharkhand.
Before that, only three other Ranji cricketers had suffered the same fate: Andhra's K Bavanna (1963-64), J&K's Shahid Parvez (1986-87) and Tamil Nadu's Anand George (1998-99).
Lamabam's 20-ball duck on Tuesday was part of a lower-order collapse that left Manipur conceding an 88-run lead to Meghalaya. Manipur will hope to salvage a draw from this contest; one point will be enough to help secure a top-two spot and qualify for the Plate final.