'In gully cricket, we'd declare the non-striker out' - Sachin Tendulkar's hilarious take on Henry Nicholls' bizarre dismissal

In the ongoing third Test between England and New Zealand at Headingley in Leeds, Henry Nicholls was dismissed in one of the most bizarre ways. Nicholls was batting on 19 when he hit one straight off Jack Leach’s bowling in the direction of the non-striker Daryl Mitchell. It came at a good speed and there was hardly any reaction time for both the batter as well as the umpire.

Mitchell tried to move his way out from getting hit but delayed taking his bat away which meant that the ball hit the bat and got deflected straight into the hands of the mid-off fielder. The umpire declared it as a clean catch and there was not much Nicholls could have done about the dismissal.

The dismissal was purely within the laws of the game, and unfortunate was the only word that came up seeing it. The Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) in tweet wrote: “An unfortunate dismissal? Yes. But wholly within the Laws,” tweeted the MCC from its official Twitter handle. “Law 33.2.2.3 states it will be out if a fielder catches the ball after it has touched the wicket, an umpire, another fielder, a runner or the other batter.

Meanwhile, legendary cricketer, Sachin Tendulkar posted a cheeky tweet on Nicholls’ dismissal which went viral on social media. ‘In gully cricket, we’d declare the non-striker out,’ Tendulkar tweeted stating that gully cricket had different rules as the non-striker would have been declared out for the same incident.

Here’s the tweet from Sachin Tendulkar

Meanwhile, once Nicholls was dismissed, Mitchell (78*) and Tom Blundell (45*) stitched a crucial unbeaten partnership of 102 for the sixth wicket until the end of the first day’s play. New Zealand finished at 225 for 5 in 90 overs and it was quite a comeback as Stuart Broad and Leach provided the early breakthroughs. Having secured the series 2-0 already, England will be looking to make sure that they complete a whitewash by winning the final Test.