This has to be one of the most remarkable entries into international cricket. The act of running out a non-striker by a bowler before releasing the ball is highly controversial, though not illegal. Even one such dismissal in a match has the potential to be red-hot topic of debate for years to come but what if someone does that four times and that too in the same game?
Maeva Douma of Cameroon isn’t someone bogged down by nerves as her performance on Sunday showed. Making her international debut at just 16 years, she punished four Ugandan batters for venturing out of their crease at the non-striker’s end by running them out in a sensational performance during a Women’s T20I World Cup qualifier on Sunday.
Douma, a right-arm fast bowler, finished with figures of 1/27 from her four overs but what these numbers do not reveal is the fact that she was responsible for a total of five Ugandan wickets to have fallen.
pic.twitter.com/KjVCYGvQoh— hypocaust (@_hypocaust) September 12, 2021
After she had bowled opener Prosscovia Alako (31) to end a blistering opening partnership in the fifth over, Douma again took the matter in her own hands after the pair of Rita Musamali and Kevin Awino added 100 runs for the second wicket to put Uganda in a strong position at 153/1.
She first ran out Awino at the non-striker end on 34 with Musamali (59), captain Immaculate Nakisuuyi (21) and finally Janet Mbanazi (5) with what would have been the last delivery of Uganda innings.
A clip shared on social media shows that the Uganda batters, at the receiving end of the dismissals, didn’t make fuss of it and instead walked away quietly without showing any dissent.
Despite that, Uganda finished with 190/6 in 20 overs and in reply shot out Cameroon for a mere 35 in 14.3 overs.
The controversial form of dismissal has often polarised the cricketing world with the last such big instance coming during the IPL 2019 when he dismissed Jos Buttler in the similar fashion which resulted in cricket’s lawmakers MCC first backing the Indian before a U-turn deeming that “the pause was too long between the time Ashwin reached the crease and the moment it was reasonable to expect the ball would be delivered."
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