PSL 2019: Shoaib Malik escapes timed out dismissal thanks to leniency of umpires and Daren Sammy

Incident happens during victory for Peshawar Zalmi against the Multan Sultans on Thursday

Multan Sultans captain Shoaib Malik had a fortunate escape on Thursday. Image courtesy of Pakistan Cricket Board. 
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Shoaib Malik was spared from becoming the first player ever to be timed out in a Twenty20 match after neither the umpires nor Daren Sammy, the Peshawar Zalmi captain, opted to enforce the dismissal.

The Multan Sultans captain took far longer than the three minutes specified by the Laws of Cricket to make it to the wicket after the dismissal of the previous batsman, Johnson Charles.

The playing conditions of T20 cricket are even stricter on timings at the fall of a wicket. According to the T20 international playing conditions on the Pakistan Cricket Board website: “The incoming batsman must be in position to take guard or for his partner to be ready to receive the next ball within 1 minute 30 seconds of the fall of the previous wicket.”

Had Sammy and his side appealed, Malik should have been given timed out, which is perhaps the rarest mode of dismissal in cricket, with only a few recorded instances in any format of the game in history.

However, they opted against appealing – even though Sammy initially looked aggrieved when consulting the umpires, while Kieron Pollard, the Peshawar fielder, jokingly welcomed Malik to the crease by pointing at his watch.

Malik proceeded to make 28 not out and help his Multan side to an imposing total of 172 for five. It was academic in the final count up, though, as Peshawar chased it with seven wickets to spare, to go top of the Pakistan Super League.

Umar Amin, who shared in an unbroken stand worth 89 with Kieron Pollard that won the game for Peshawar, said his side opted not to appeal against Malik because of confusion over a strategic time out.

In the PSL, teams can take a tactical break between the 11th and 15th overs. Malik was under the impression the time out was being taken after Johnson was out to the fifth ball of the 13th over.

It was not, though, and the umpires are believed to have informed Sammy he could appeal for a timed out dismissal if he so wished.

“I think everybody, including Shoaib Malik, thought it was a time out,” Amin said. “He thought it was a time out, but it wasn’t.”

Even though the margin of victory suggests Peshawar were comfortable winners, they were reliant on a late surge with the bat by Pollard.

The all-rounder, who profited from a dropped catch by his fellow West Indian Charles early on, hit three successive sixes off Dan Christian at the end of the 18th over to ease his side’s nerves.

He ended with 52 not off 27 balls, while Amin hit the winning runs and ended unbeaten on 54.

“The first couple balls, you’re a bit anxious so I just tried to keep calm,” Pollard said.

“It was getting a bit tight, but if you stay until the end one big over gets you right back into the game.

“I looked at the balls left, the runs to get, and also the bowlers left. We had to go at 12  [runs per over] towards the end, but we were going at eight and nine, but we knew one big over would get us back in it.”