Afghanistan penalised for deliberately conceding boundary during Test against Zimbabwe, watch video

A screengrab of the incident

A bizarre incident took place in the ongoing Test between Afghanistan and Zimbabwe in Dubai as the former were penalised by the umpires for deliberately conceding a boundary. The incident took place in the 91st over, when Zimbabwe were batting at 281/8 in their first innings.

Sikander Raja, who intended to take a single and keep the strike for the next over, played the shot towards the cover region but the ball stationed almost a yard ahead of the boundary rope. Hashmatullah Shahidi, the fielder involved, stepped over the rope just before releasing the ball. The incident was followed by a brief discussion between both the parties and with the umpire. 

Umpire cited the Law 19.8, which deals with "Overthrow or wilful act of fielder" and decided to award five runs to Zimbabwe and allow Raja to take the strike in next over.  

Deliberate misfield from the Afghani player to make the newer batsmen take strike, didn't think this was allowed no? #Cricket #AFGvZIM pic.twitter.com/fzHlOofALu — GiraffePig (@ClarkeTom20) March 12, 2021

“If the boundary results from an overthrow or from the wilful act of a fielder, the runs scored shall be any runs for penalties awarded to either side and the allowance for the boundary the runs completed by the batsmen, together with the run in progress if they had already crossed at the instant of the throw or act,” Law 19.8 states.

However, Zimbabwe could only manage 287 in response to Afghanistan first-innings total of 545/4 and were asked to follow-on. Zimbabwe are currently batting at 266/7, with skipper Sean Williams and Donald Tiripano present at the crease. Williams is playing at 106 from 190, while Tripano on 63 off 164 deliveries.