EX-SURREY SEAMER SPEAKS ABOUT MYSTERIOUS GHOST WICKET

Mohammad Akram picked up the most bizarre dismissal you're likely to see during a game in 2007

The bowler at the heart of 10-year-old footage which has been sweeping across social media has offered an explanation for one of cricket's worst dismissals.

Grainy video of a match between Surrey and Leeds/Bradford UCCE has been shared widely online in recent weeks, with viewers intrigued by a particularly peculiar piece of umpiring.

The unfortunate student batsman Thomas Merilaht was given out after playing inside the line of the delivery from Pakistani seamer Mohammad Akram, allowing the ball to pass more than six inches from his bat.

Ten seconds after wicketkeeper Jon Batty made a simple take behind the stumps, Merilaht looked up to see umpire Martin Bodenham, a former football referee, raising his finger.

Suggestions have been made that a rule was in place whereby batsmen could be given out if they made no effort to play a shot at two consecutive balls but Akram has ruled that theory wrong.

“The umpire in that game was inexperienced and had just turned down two vociferous appeals that put him under pressure," he told the Express Tribune.

"Then that delivery was nowhere near the bat and we didn’t appeal either, except for a half-hearted try by the slip fielder.

"Much to our surprise, he gave him out even though there was no chance in hell he had nicked it.”

Merilaht was well set on 28 when he was given out by Bodenham, who took charge of the 1997 League Cup final between Leicester and Middlesbrough at Wembley, but he took his marching orders with incredibly good grace.

And in the second innings he made up for the disappointment by scoring an unbeaten 74 in a little under three hours against a Surrey attack which included the likes of Jimmy Ormond, Rikki Clarke and Steve Magoffin. The match was drawn.

“I was actually going back to bowl the next ball when the finger got raised," Akram said. "Surprisingly, the batsman didn’t protest either and promptly accepted the decision."

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