In cricket, a player is dismissed when they lose their wicket. At this point, the batsman must discontinue batting and leave the field permanently. A batsman can be dismissed in a number of ways, the most common being bowled, caught, leg before wicket (LBW), stumped, run out and hit wicket. Much rarer are hit the ball twice, obstructing the field, retired out and timed out. These are regarded by analysts as unusual ways of dismissals in cricket, where the bowler is denied any credit. Handled the ball was a previously a separate method of dismissal, now incorporated into obstructing the field. , there have been 95 instances of players being dismissed unusually in international cricket: 11 in Test cricket, 12 in One Day Internationals (ODIs), 30 in Twenty20 Internationals (T20Is), 3 in Women's One Day International and 39 in Women's Twenty20 International.
Test cricket In Tests, England batsman Leonard Hutton was the first player to be dismissed for obstructing the field, while playing against South Africa in August 1951. Between January 1957 and March 2001, six different players were dismissed for handling the ball, the most common form of an unusual dismissal. Sri Lanka cricketers Marvan Atapattu and Mahela Jayawardene are the only Test players to be dismissed retired out, when playing against Bangladesh in 2001. Sri Lanka's captain, Sanath Jayasuriya, received strong criticism for the team's act.
Russell Endean, the South African wicketkeeper, was involved in both of the first two unusual dismissials. First came his involvement in Len Hutton's "obstructing the field" dismissal: Endean was prevented from attempting a catch, when Hutton used his bat to prevent the ball landing on his stumps after he had edged it up in the air. (The striker guarding his stumps is the only circumstance in which a ball can legally be hit twice: so Hutton came close to that form of dismissal too, if the umpire had ruled that the ball was not in fact headed towards the wicket.) Six years later, in similar circumstances after edging the ball up in the air and seeing it drop towards his stumps, Endean used his free hand instead of his bat to intercept the ball, and was given out handled the ball. The second "handled the ball" dismissal was more unfortunate: Andrew Hilditch, at the non-striker's end, picked up the stationary ball to hand it back to a fielder, the only instance of a non-striker suffering this dismissal. All subsequent instances of "handled the ball" have been more similar to Endean's, with a batsman using his free hand to guard his stumps.
In December 2023, Mushfiqur Rahim became the first person in test cricket to be dismissed for obstructing the field since the rule for handling the ball was subsumed into this law in October 2017.
No. Player Dismissal Runs Team Opposition Venue Match Date Result 1 Obstructing the field 27 The Oval, London, England 5th Test Won 2 Handled the ball 3 Newlands Cricket Ground, Cape Town, South Africa 2nd Test Lost 3 Handled the ball 29 W.A.C.A. Ground, Perth, Australia 2nd Test Won 4 Handled the ball 58 National Stadium, Karachi, Pakistan 1st Test Won 5 Handled the ball 55 Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai, India 4th Test Drawn 6 Handled the ball 133 Old Trafford Cricket Ground, Manchester, England 1st Test Lost 7 Handled the ball 47 M. A. Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai, India 3rd Test Lost 8 Retired out 201 Sinhalese Sports Club Ground, Colombo, Sri Lanka 2nd Test Won 9 Retired out 150 Sinhalese Sports Club Ground, Colombo, Sri Lanka 2nd Test Won 10 Handled the ball 64 M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore, India 3rd Test Drawn 11 Obstructing the field 35 Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur, Bangladesh 2nd Test Lost
Men's One Day International cricket In men's ODIs, eleven players have been dismissed on twelve occasions in an unusual manner. The first such occasion was when India's Mohinder Amarnath was given out for handling the ball, against Australia in February 1986. The following year, Pakistan cricketer Rameez Raja became the first player to be given out for obstructing the field in ODIs: with the match lost, but himself on a score of 98, he attempted two runs off the final ball and used his bat to deliberately block a run-out attempt when going for the second run that would have got him a century. In 1989, Amarnath was dismissed in a similar fashion, kicking the ball away to prevent a run-out attempt, while playing in a match against Sri Lanka, thus becoming the first player to be dismissed by two different unusual methods. Obstructing the field has been the most common method of unusual dismissal in men's ODIs, happening on eight of the twelve occasions.
Sri Lanka's Angelo Mathews became the first person to be dismissed Timed out in international cricket during a group stage match against Bangladesh in the 2023 Cricket World Cup.
No. Player Dismissal Runs Team Opposition Venue Match Date Result 1 Handled the ball 15 Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne, Australia 2nd Final Lost 2 Obstructing the field 99 National Stadium, Karachi, Pakistan 2nd ODI Lost 3 Obstructing the field 28 Gujarat Stadium, Ahmedabad, India ODI Won 4 Handled the ball 46 Kingsmead Cricket Ground, Durban, South Africa 3rd ODI Won 5 Obstructing the field 16 Arbab Niaz Stadium, Peshawar, Pakistan 1st ODI Won 6 Obstructing the field 0 Kingsmead Cricket Ground, Durban, South Africa 4th ODI Won 7 Obstructing the field 0 St George's Park, Port Elizabeth, South Africa 2nd ODI Won 8 Obstructing the field 10 Lord's, London, England 2nd ODI Lost 9 Handled the ball 18 Queens Sports Club, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe 3rd ODI Won 10 Obstructing the field 34 Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Sharjah, UAE ODI Won 11 Obstructing the field 55 Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, Antigua, Antigua and Barbuda 1st ODI Lost 12 Timed out 0 Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi, India World Cup Lost
Men's Twenty20 International cricket The first instance of an unusual dismissal in T20Is occurred in June 2017, when England's Jason Roy was given out obstructing the field in a match against South Africa.
The T20I between Ghana and Sierra Leone on 17 December 2023 is notable for featuring two separate unusual dismissals. First, Sierra Leone's Abass Gbla made intentional contact with Ghana's Godfred Bakiweyem while Bakiweyem was attempting to run Gbla out, resulting in Gbla being given out obstructing the field. Later, Bakiweyem himself failed to be ready to receive the next ball in the stipulated time following the dismissal of Samson Awiah and was given out timed out.
No. Player Dismissal Runs Team Opposition Venue Match Date Result 1 Obstructing the field 67 County Ground, Taunton, England T20I Lost 2 Hassan Rasheed Obstructing the field 16 Al Amerat Cricket Stadium, Muscat, Oman T20I Lost 3 Retired out 24 TU Cricket Ground, Kirtipur, Nepal T20I Lost 4 Razmal Shigiwal Obstructing the field 10 Vinoř Cricket Ground, Prague, Czech Republic T20I Lost 5 Hevit JacksonRetired out 38 Kerava National Cricket Ground, Kerava, Finland T20I Won 6 Hevit Jackson Retired out 50 Kerava National Cricket Ground, Kerava, Finland T20I Won 7 Mustapha Suwareh Retired out 3 Rwanda Cricket Stadium, Kigali, Rwanda T20I Lost 8 Fanyan Mughal Hit the ball twice 8 Moara Vlasiei Cricket Ground, Moara Vlasiei, Romania T20I Lost 9 Abass Gbla Obstructing the field 8 Willowmoore Park, Benoni, South Africa T20I Lost 10 Timed out 0 Won 11 Retired out 18 Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, North Sound, Antigua T20I Lost 12 Retired out 25 King George V Sports Ground, Castel, Guernsey T20I Lost 13 Obstructing the field 11 Gelephu International Cricket Ground, Gelephu, Bhutan T20I Won 14 Obstructing the field 1 Udayana Cricket Ground, Jimbaran, Indonesia T20I Lost 15 Retired out 6 West End Park International Cricket Stadium, Doha, Qatar T20I Won 16 Retired out 101 Nigeria Cricket Federation Oval 1, Abuja, Nigeria T20I Won 17 Retired out 112 Nigeria Cricket Federation Oval 1, Abuja, Nigeria T20I Won18 Retired out 12 Pierre Werner Cricket Ground, Walferdange T20I 22 June 2025 Lost19 Retired out 34 Entebbe Cricket Oval, Entebbe T20I 26 July 2025 Won20 Retired out 15 Central Broward Park, Lauderhill T20I 3 August 2025 Lost21 Retired out 123 Harare Sports Club, Harare T20I 28 September 2025 Won22 Retired out 32 Oman Cricket Academy Ground Turf 2, Al Amarat T20I 15 October 2025 Lost23 Retired out 18 M. A. Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai T20I 15 February 2026 Lost24 Retired out 30 Achimota Oval A, Accra T20I 25 March 2026 Won25 Retired out 52 Happy Valley Ground 2, Episkopi T20I 17 May 2026 Won26 Retired out 8 Happy Valley Ground 2, Episkopi T20I 19 May 2026 Lost27 Retired out 8 Happy Valley Ground 2, Episkopi T20I 20 May 2026 Lost28 Retired out 8 Happy Valley Ground, Episkopi T20I 22 May 2026 Lost29 Retired out 62 Happy Valley Ground, Episkopi T20I 22 May 2026 Lost30 Retired out 33 Moara Vlasei Cricket Ground, Ilfov County T20I 20 June 2026 Lost
Women's ODI cricket In women's ODI cricket, there have been three instances of unusual dismissals: the first came in an ODI match between Sri Lanka and the West Indies in April 2010. Sri Lanka wicket-keeper Dilani Manodara was retired out due to her slow scoring rate in her team's first innings, having taken 70 minutes and 39 balls to score 8 runs.
No.PlayerDismissalRunsTeamOppositionVenueMatchDateResult 1 Retired out 8 St Paul's Sporting Complex, St Paul's, St Kitts and Nevis 1st ODI Lost 2 Obstructing the field 2 Mulupadu Cricket Ground, Vijayawada, India 2nd ODI Won 3 Obstructing the field 13 National Cricket Stadium, St. George's, Grenada 2nd ODI Lost
Women's Twenty20 International cricket Women's T20I cricket has seen many instances of unusual dismissals. The most unique one came in a match of the 2025 Women's T20 World Cup Asia Qualifier when 10 United Arab Emirates players retired out. The tournament situation made winning vitally important and rain started to fall in the 16th over. Having already scored 192–0 they asked to declare, which is not allowed in the format, prompting the successive retirements to end their innings 4 overs early to save time. They won the game by 163 runs after bowling out Qatar for 29 in 11.1 overs.