Marylebone Cricket Club explains why was Michael Neser's controversial catch given as out

Michael Neser (Source: Twitter)

The Big Bash League has been a great edition so far with a lot of high scoring matches that have been taking place which has kept the crowds coming in. The crowds have been treated to batting of the highest order. It has lit up stadiums in Australia and the games have been high scoring thrillers.

The point of debate that took place in the League was regarding a catch that Michael Neser took against the Sydney Sixers to dismiss Jordan Silk, handing a 15-run win to the Brisbane Heat. The batter hit the ball to long off where Neser caught it. He tripped over the fence, but he released the ball, then he realized that he had released the ball a little over the fence, so he went beyond the fence and took it with both his feet in the air.

Mathew Wade was out in a similar fashion last year

He then lobbed the ball back and took it inside the fence. Again, the key outcomes here were that Neser first made contact with the ball while within the boundary and was never grounded over the rope while touching the ball.

Speaking on 7 Cricket after the match, Neser referenced the aforementioned Renshaw catch while adding,

"I didn't know if they'd changed the rules so I'm going to give it a crack and thankfully they didn't change the rules."

Here is the tweet from the MCC

The key points are:

1) The FIRST contact must be inside the boundary, and

2) the fielder can’t be touching the ball and the ground beyond the boundary at the same time.#MCCLaws

— Marylebone Cricket Club (@MCCOfficial) January 1, 2023

Law 19.5.2 states: "A fielder who is not in contact with the ground is considered to be grounded beyond the boundary if his/her final contact with the ground, before his/her first contact with the ball after it has been delivered by the bowler, was not entirely within the boundary."

This means the catch was fair and well according to the rules. This means that the effort by Neser was legitimate and within the rules of the game. We have seen many acrobatic efforts take place in this manner and even relay catches as well. In the Big Bash League last season, Matt Renshaw and Tom Banton took a relay catch to dismiss Mathew Wade in a similar way to Neser’s catch.