List of unusual dismissals in international cricket

In Tests, England batsman Leonard Hutton was the first player to be dismissed for obstructing the field, while playing against South Africa in August 1951.^[5][b] Between January 1957 and March 2001, six different players were dismissed for handling the ball, the most common form of an unusual dismissal.^[6] Sri Lanka cricketers Marvan Atapattu and Mahela Jayawardene are the only Test players to be dismissed retired out, when playing against Bangladesh in 2001. Sri Lanka's captain, Sanath Jayasuriya, received strong criticism for the team's act.^[7][8]

Russell Endean, the South African wicketkeeper, was involved in both of the first two unusual dismissials. First came his involvement in Len Hutton's "obstructing the field" dismissal: Endean was prevented from attempting a catch, when Hutton used his bat to prevent the ball landing on his stumps after he had edged it up in the air. (Guarding his stumps being the only circumstance in which a ball can legally be hit twice: so Hutton came close to that form of dismissal too, if the umpire had ruled that the ball was not in fact headed towards the wicket.) Six years later, in similar circumstances after edging the ball up in the air and seeing it drop towards his stumps, Endean used his free hand instead of his bat to intercept the ball, and was given out "handled ball". The second "handled ball" dismissal was more unfortunate: Andrew Hilditch, at the non-striker's end, picked up the stationary ball to hand it back to a fielder, the only instance of a non-striker suffering this dismissal. All subsequent instances of "handled the ball" have been more similar to Endean's, with a batsman using his free hand to guard his stumps.

In December 2023, Mushfiqur Rahim became the first person in test cricket to be dismissed for obstructing the field since the rule for handling the ball was subsumed into this law in October 2017.^[9]

No.	Player	Dismissal	Runs	Team	Opposition	Venue	Match	Date	Result
1	Leonard Hutton	Obstructing the field	27	England	South Africa	The Oval, London, England	5th Test	16 August 1951	Won[10]
2	Russell Endean	Handled the ball	3	South Africa	England	Newlands Cricket Ground, Cape Town, South Africa	2nd Test	1 January 1957	Lost[11]
3	Andrew Hilditch	Handled the ball	29	Australia	Pakistan	W.A.C.A. Ground, Perth, Australia	2nd Test	24 March 1979	Won[12]
4	Mohsin Khan	Handled the ball	58	Pakistan	Australia	National Stadium, Karachi, Pakistan	1st Test	22 September 1982	Won[13]
5	Desmond Haynes	Handled the ball	55	West Indies	India	Wankhede Stadium, Mumbai, India	4th Test	24 November 1983	Drawn[14]
6	Graham Gooch	Handled the ball	133	England	Australia	Old Trafford Cricket Ground, Manchester, England	1st Test	3 June 1993	Lost[15]
7	Steve Waugh	Handled the ball	47	Australia	India	M. A. Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai, India	3rd Test	18 March 2001	Lost[16]
8	Marvan Atapattu	Retired out	201	Sri Lanka	Bangladesh	Sinhalese Sports Club Ground, Colombo, Sri Lanka	2nd Test	6 September 2001	Won[17]
9	Mahela Jayawardene	Retired out	150	Sri Lanka	Bangladesh	Sinhalese Sports Club Ground, Colombo, Sri Lanka	2nd Test	6 September 2001	Won[17]
10	Michael Vaughan	Handled the ball	64	England	India	M. Chinnaswamy Stadium, Bangalore, India	3rd Test	19 December 2001	Drawn[18]
11	Mushfiqur Rahim	Obstructing the field	35	Bangladesh	New Zealand	Shere Bangla National Stadium, Mirpur, Bangladesh	2nd Test	6 December 2023	Lost[19]

In men's ODIs, eleven players have been dismissed on twelve occasions in an unusual manner. The first such occasion was when India's Mohinder Amarnath was given out for handling the ball, against Australia in February 1986. The following year, Pakistan cricketer Rameez Raja became the first player to be given out for obstructing the field in ODIs: with the match lost, but himself on a score of 98, he attempted two runs off the final ball and used his bat to deliberately block a run-out attempt when going for the second run that would have got him a century. In 1989, Amarnath was dismissed in a similar fashion, kicking the ball away to prevent a run-out attempt, while playing in a match against Sri Lanka, thus becoming the first player to be dismissed by two different unusual methods.^[5] Obstructing the field has been the most common method of unusual dismissal in men's ODIs, happening on eight of the twelve occasions.

Sri Lanka's Angelo Mathews was the only cricketer to be dismissed Timed out in international cricket when he was dismissed in such a manner during a group stage match against Bangladesh in 2023 Cricket World Cup.^[20][21]

No.	Player	Dismissal	Runs	Team	Opposition	Venue	Match	Date	Result
1	Mohinder Amarnath	Handled the ball	15	India	Australia	Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne, Australia	2nd Final	9 February 1986	Lost[22]
2	Rameez Raja	Obstructing the field	99	Pakistan	England	National Stadium, Karachi, Pakistan	2nd ODI	20 November 1987	Lost[23]
3	Mohinder Amarnath	Obstructing the field	28	India	Sri Lanka	Gujarat Stadium, Ahmedabad, India	ODI	22 October 1989	Won[24]
4	Daryll Cullinan	Handled the ball	46	South Africa	West Indies	Kingsmead Cricket Ground, Durban, South Africa	3rd ODI	27 January 1999	Won[25]
5	Inzamam ul-Haq	Obstructing the field	16	Pakistan	India	Arbab Niaz Stadium, Peshawar, Pakistan	1st ODI	6 February 2006	Won[26]
6	Mohammed Hafeez	Obstructing the field	0	Pakistan	South Africa	Kingsmead Cricket Ground, Durban, South Africa	4th ODI	21 March 2013	Won[27]
7	Anwar Ali	Obstructing the field	0	Pakistan	South Africa	St George's Park, Port Elizabeth, South Africa	2nd ODI	27 November 2013	Won[28]
8	Ben Stokes	Obstructing the field	10	England	Australia	Lord's, London, England	2nd ODI	5 September 2015	Lost[29]
9	Chamu Chibhabha	Handled the ball	18	Zimbabwe	Afghanistan	Queens Sports Club, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe	3rd ODI	20 October 2015	Won[30]
10	Xavier Marshall	Obstructing the field	34	United States	United Arab Emirates	Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Sharjah, UAE	ODI	8 December 2019	Won[31]
11	Danushka Gunathilaka	Obstructing the field	55	Sri Lanka	West Indies	Sir Vivian Richards Stadium, Antigua, Antigua and Barbuda	1st ODI	10 March 2021	Lost[32]
12	Angelo Mathews	Timed out	0	Sri Lanka	Bangladesh	Arun Jaitley Stadium, Delhi, India	World Cup	6 November 2023	Lost[33]

The first instance of an unusual dismissal in T20Is occurred in June 2017, when England's Jason Roy was given out obstructing the field in a match against South Africa.^[34]

No.	Player	Dismissal	Runs	Team	Opposition	Venue	Match	Date	Result
1	Jason Roy	Obstructing the field	67	England	South Africa	County Ground, Taunton, England	2nd T20I	23 June 2017	Lost[35]
2	Hassan Rasheed	Obstructing the field	16	Maldives	Qatar	Al Amerat Cricket Stadium, Muscat, Oman	T20I	23 January 2019	Lost[36]
3	Sonam Tobgay	Retired out[37]	24	Bhutan	Maldives	TU Cricket Ground, Kirtipur, Nepal	T20I	7 December 2019	Lost[38]
4	Fanyan Mughal	Hit the ball twice	8	Malta	Romania	Moara Vlasiei Cricket Ground, Moara Vlasiei, Romania	T20I	20 August 2023	Lost[39]

In international women's cricket, there have been two instances of unusual dismissals: the first came in an ODI match between Sri Lanka and the West Indies in April 2010.^[40] Sri Lanka wicket-keeper Dilani Manodara was retired out due to her slow scoring rate in her team's first innings, having taken 70 minutes and 39 balls to score 8 runs.^[41] The most recent instance of an unusual dismissal happened when India's Thirush Kamini was given out for obstructing the field in a match against West Indies in 2016.^[42]

No.	Player	Dismissal	Runs	Team	Opposition	Venue	Match	Date	Result
1	Dilani Manodara	Retired out	8	Sri Lanka	West Indies	St Paul's Sporting Complex, St Paul's, St Kitts and Nevis	1st ODI	18 April 2010	Lost[41]
2	Thirush Kamini	Obstructing the field	2	India	West Indies	Mulupadu Cricket Ground, Vijayawada, India	2nd ODI	13 November 2016	Won[43]