Daryll Cullinan gets out trying to play one-drop-one-hand

After Mohinder Amarnath, Daryll Cullinan was the second batsman to be given out handling the ball in ODIs.

At Kingsmead on January 27, 1999 Daryll Cullinan became only the second batsman to be given out handling the ball in ODIs. Abhishek Mukherjee looks at one of the most unusual dismissals in international cricket.

Handling the ball, albeit a rare form of dismissal, is not unheard of, even at international level. Russell Endean was the first to be given out that way against England at Newlands in 1956-57, followed by Andrew Hilditch (albeit unfortunate to be given out when he threw the ball back to the bowler) at WACA in 1978-79. Mohsin Khan, Desmond Haynes, and Graham Gooch followed suit.

Mohinder Amarnath became the first victim in ODIs in the second Benson & Hedges final of 1985-86 at MCG: immediately after stopping a Greg Matthews ball from hitting the stumps with his hand, Amarnath “walked” without waiting for the umpire’s decision, for whatever reason, with a wide grin.

It had been 13 seasons since that dismissal of Amarnath (who had also managed to get out obstructing the field in the interim, thus becoming the only batsman to be dismissed in 8 different ways in international cricket). West Indies had toured South Africa, and in stark contrast to their performances a decade earlier, were whitewashed 0-5 in the Test series, not being able to cope with the all-round skills of Jacques Kallis and some quality bowling from Allan Donald and Shaun Pollock.

West Indies turned things around in the ODIs: they had South Africa by the hook in the rain-curtailed first ODI at New Wanderers, only to be defeated by a blitz from Lance Klusener, who romped to a 14-ball 27 and finished things off in the last ball.

West Indies turned things around at East London. The scorecard made bizarre reading with Shivnarine Chanderpaul scoring 150, Carl Hooper 108, and nobody else reaching 10; they won the match by 43 runs, keeping the contest alive and breathing life back to the tour ahead of the third ODI at Kingsmead.

One-drop-one-hand

Cricket, especially gully cricket, is more of a batsman’s sport in India, what with asphalt pitches, “cambis” (derived from Cambridge or canvas) balls, and six or seven fielders. Improvisations were necessary, and one-drop-one-hand (referred to as one-tuppy-one-hand by some — tuppy being the Hindi for bounce) had to be introduced. The rule was simple: along with the conventional catch, a batsman would be given out if the fielder caught  a ball on the bounce — but only if he caught with one hand.

Daryll Cullinan adopted the same approach at Kingsmead that day. The only difference was that he did the one-drop-one-hand while batting. It was one of the most bizarre moments international cricket has witnessed.

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Andrew Hall made his ODI debut, Hansie Cronje decided to bat, and out went Cullinan alongside Herschelle Gibbs. The pair began confidently against Curtly Ambrose and Reon King. Brian Lara eventually introduced Carl Hooper, who dismissed Gibbs — but not before the openers had put on 49 in 69 balls.

Cronje promoted Klusener, who went after the bowling almost immediately. Lara brought on Keith Arthurton, holding back Neil McGarrell and Nixon McLean, but the experiment did not work. Klusener continued to plunder runs while Cullinan held up one end comfortably.

Then it happened: Arthurton bowled his usual dart; Cullinan tried to chop it, but only managed a bottom edge; the ball, after hitting the ground hard, went straight up in the air. Cullinan waited for it to descend, and then, after plenty of time to think, caught it with his right glove (Ridley Jacobs had, for some reason, tried to sneak under Cullinan’s hand to catch the ball), and threw it back to Arthurton.

Had the ball rushed towards the stump Cullinan would have had an excuse for the act. He had, on the contrary, a lot of time to decide; he could have dead-batted it; he could have guarded the stumps with both pads; in other words, he had ample time to protect his stumps.

Cullinan had no idea that he had broken the law. A confused Arthurton did not even appeal. It took about a minute for Lara to intervene. After some discussion and deliberation David Orchard and Wilf Diedricks decided to rule him out. A bemused Cullinan started the long walk back to the pavilion: he was the second batsman to be given out handling the ball in an ODI.

Cronje secures win

The dismissal did not matter. Klusener lanced the West Indians on his way to a 74-ball 64, while Cronje provided the finishing touches with a 42-ball 58. Hooper finished with 4 for 52, Ambrose went for only 2 for 31 from 10 overs, but South Africa piled up 274 for 9.

West Indies responded well with Shivnarine Chanderpaul racing to a 44-ball 52 (and adding 88 in 70 balls with Junior Murray), but the others did not respond. Lara scored a graceful 32, but Cronje’s triple-strike (he removed Lara, Jacobs, and Keith Semple in the space of 12 balls) sealed the match for the hosts. West Indies slumped to a 55-run defeat with 41 balls remaining in the match.

What followed?

– South Africa won the remaining 4 matches of the series: they beat West Indies by 99 runs at St George’s Park, by 89 runs at Newlands, by 114 runs at Bloemfontein, and by 50 runs at Centurion, thus claiming the series 6-1.

– No other batsman has been dismissed handling the ball in ODIs, though Steve Waugh and Michael Vaughan “achieved” it, both against India in the same calendar year (2001).

Brief scores:

South Africa 274 for 9 in 50 overs (Lance Klusener 64, Hansie Cronje 58, Daryll Cullinan 46; Carl Hooper 4 for 52) beat West Indies 219 in 43.1 overs (Shivnarine Chanderpaul 52; Jacques Kallis 3 for 24, Hansie Cronje 3 for 45) by 55 runs.

(Abhishek Mukherjee is the Editor and Cricket Historian at CricketCountry. He blogs here and can be followed on Twitter here.)