Umpire ducks spontaneously off a Virat Kohli shot to save his life

With the advent of the shortest format of the game a decade back, the emphasis on power became primary in cricket. Players have gone in to work the extra yard in the gym to play those powerful shots with the creeping asking run rate. With extra power comes extra danger to the personnel on the field with no protection on.

Batsmen might have their shields on with helmets, gloves, arm guards and thigh guards to protect themselves from the balls being hit at ferocious pace but the fielders, bowlers and the umpires have no protection on barring the fielders at short leg and silly point.

One of the snippets of the game between Zimbabwe and Bangladesh back in 2011 which went viral was based on bowler named Keegan Meth facing the brunt of the hard ball coming at full velocity. Needless to say, the bowler lost many teeth which resulted in a bloodbath in between the pitch.

Australian umpire Bruce Oxenford came up with a unique idea to save himself from a ball hit at pace. That fact that the umpires have hardly any reaction time to give their judgement or to evade from the ball arriving at pace, propelled the use of the protective shield which one can use mounting it on the arms. Apart from that, the use of helmets by umpires is not something unheard of in modern cricket.

In an exclusive event yesterday, Virat Kohli was at full throttle in the shortest format of the game against Sri Lanka. Kohli made full use of the Mega T20 season last year, toppling all records. The hangover from the season did not seem to go away as he smashed 82 off 54 balls, smashing 7 boundaries and six.

On 66, one of those boundaries from Virat Kohli almost took the standing umpire Ruchira Palliyaguruge with it. Had it not been the evasive action of him dodging the ball being hit straight at him, he too would have been at the receiving end of the hard ball coming at pace.

Watch the video here

pic.twitter.com/G9uzOk02fT

— CricGif (@CricGif17) September 6, 2017