Mohammad Amir was run out in comical fashion after he assumed his shot would go for six, but it was fielded spectacularly by Roston Chase.
Don’t ball-watch.
Don’t underestimate the fielder.
Ground your bat.
Dive.
Such advice is perhaps stating the obvious to an alert batsman, but Mohammad Amir was anything but switched on during the final ball of the 79th over, despite Pakistan’s precarious position at 192 for 7, ahead by only 136, in their second innings in Sharjah.
The delivery began with Amir winding up and lofting Devendra Bishoo towards the long-on boundary. What followed was a comedy of errors. Amir kept his eyes on the soaring ball, possibly admiring his shot, and assumed it would go for six. After a couple of seconds, he strolled down the pitch to greet his partner Wahab Riaz, who may have also assumed it was a boundary because he did not run either.
Far away at long-on, Roston Chase kept his eyes on the ball as it began to descend over his head. He flung himself backwards on the edge of the field, caught the ball, and as he began to fall over the boundary he threw it back into play. Chase then got back on his feet and returned the ball towards the non-striker’s end, interrupting the conversation about to take place two-thirds down the pitch near the striker’s end.
Chase’s acrobatics jolted Amir back to reality and he began to run all of a sudden, taking Wahab by surprise. Amir had about 15 yards to cover to get to the bowler’s end but he lost his bat and did not dive as Jason Holder rushed in from the leg-side to collect Chase’s accurate throw and run the batsman out. Had they run hard from the moment Amir hit the ball, Pakistan might have got three.