Watch: Rare BBL ghost play moment as zing bails gets dislodged on its own

The 12th edition of the Big Bash League has begun and the tournament has already started to provide some insane moments of cricket. The action continued on Day 3 as Brisbane Heat clashed with Melbourne Renegades on Thursday.

Twelve seasons in and the BBL is still producing bizarre, never-before-seen things on a cricket field. Renegades star Nic Maddinson on Thursday night was called back to the middle of Cazaly’s Stadium after a third umpire review confirmed he hadn’t been dismissed hit wicket, despite “spooky” timing that seemed to suggest the left-hander had stood on his stumps.

Watch the video here:

Ghost play in #bbl2022 @CricCrazyJohns @mufaddal_vohra pic.twitter.com/2tcYsudOli

— Shreee 🔥 (@SriCenax) December 15, 2022

The opening batter was left flabbergasted after middling a pull shot behind square leg off the bowling of Brisbane quick Mark Steketee before turning around to find one bail on the ground.

A stunned Maddinson began walking off the ground before replays showed the batter’s feet and bat and the ball itself was nowhere near the stumps when he played the shot, with the bail mysteriously dislodging on its own.

Maddinson's blazing start to the tournament

Talking about the match, Heat opted to bowl after winning the toss. Initially, the bowlers were not looking effective as Renegades’ openers Sam Harper and Maddinson gave a blazing start to the team and put up a 65-run stand for the first wicket. Maddinson produced a blistering start to his BBL knock against the Brisbane Heat, consistently finding the boundary rope to set the tone for the Renegades at the top of the innings.

However, no other batter could contribute anything to the scoreboard except Maddinson who played a fiery knock of 87 runs off 49 deliveries including 10 fours and 3 maximums. Star allrounder Andre Russel helped the team to achieve a fighting total with his responsible knock of 35 runs with 3 sixes.

Brisbane displayed a terrific bowling performance. Left-arm orthodox Matthew Kuhnemann took 3 wickets in his 4 overs quota while conceding 32 runs. Right-arm medium bowler James Bazley dismissed two batters and conceded only 19 runs in 4 overs with a tremendous economy rate of 4.80.