Functions
In the case of a run out or stumping, a batsman may be declared "out" if the wicket is 'put down'. The wicket is down if a bail is removed from the top of the stumps or a wicket is struck out of the ground, whether by the ball, the bat or the striker's person. If the batsman is caught between the two popping creases if the wicket is put down, the batsman is declared out. In most cases, the event occurs in a fraction of a second. If the field umpires are unable to accurately come to a decision on the dismissal of a batsman, the umpire requests the third umpire to ascertain whether the batsman had made it home. The third umpire then looks at various TV replays from different angles and comes to a conclusion by pressing the appropriate signal. Originally decisions were conveyed in traffic light style (a red light indicating a batsman's dismissal, a green light not out); it is now common practice to display the decision via the large screen scoreboard, if available. If the umpire is unsure if a batsman is out or not, due to lack of conclusive evidence, the usual procedure is to acquit the batsman, known in cricketing parlance as "the benefit of the doubt".
The third umpire may also be called upon if the on-field umpire cannot decide which batsman is out (i.e. they end up at the same end). An example of this was the Third Test between New Zealand and the West Indies in 2006.
A batsman is caught out if a fielder catches the ball on the fly. In some cases the fielder may catch the ball a few inches above ground level. If the umpire's vision is obscured or is unsure if the ball bounced before the fielder caught the ball, he can also refer the decision.
A six is scored if the batsman hits the ball directly beyond the perimeter of the field. In some cases the ball may bounce just a foot inside the boundary rope resulting in four runs. If the umpire needs to ascertain if it had been a 4 or a 6, he may consult the third umpire. Near the boundary, often a fielder may dive to save the ball from travelling beyond the boundary. If the fielder makes any simultaneous contact with the boundary and the cricket ball, 4 runs are declared. A third umpire may also be consulted in such a case.
Read more about this topic: Third Umpire
Famous quotes containing the word functions:
“The mind is a finer body, and resumes its functions of feeding, digesting, absorbing, excluding, and generating, in a new and ethereal element. Here, in the brain, is all the process of alimentation repeated, in the acquiring, comparing, digesting, and assimilating of experience. Here again is the mystery of generation repeated.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“In today’s world parents find themselves at the mercy of a society which imposes pressures and priorities that allow neither time nor place for meaningful activities and relations between children and adults, which downgrade the role of parents and the functions of parenthood, and which prevent the parent from doing things he wants to do as a guide, friend, and companion to his children.”
—Urie Bronfenbrenner (b. 1917)
“Let us stop being afraid. Of our own thoughts, our own minds. Of madness, our own or others’. Stop being afraid of the mind itself, its astonishing functions and fandangos, its complications and simplifications, the wonderful operation of its machinery—more wonderful because it is not machinery at all or predictable.”
—Kate Millett (b. 1934)