Sompal Kami Given Out for Hitting the Ball Twice in Nepal League

Cricket has ten ways for a batter to be out. Sompal Kami found one of the rarest of them on Monday at the TU Ground in Kirtipur.

The Karnali Yaks captain was given out obstructing the field in his side's 63-run defeat to Pokhara Avengers in the Nepal Premier League, after he hit the ball a second time on the last ball of the 15th over of the chase. Kami, on 21 off 19 balls, tried to smash a wide half-tracker from Bipin Khatri, under-edged it, and watched the ball bounce at the crease. In visible frustration he hit the ball again in his backswing, Wisden reported.

Pokhara's wicketkeeper and bowler appealed. The decision went to the TV umpire, Masudur Rahman, who gave Kami out. At that point Karnali needed 88 runs from five overs with their frontline batters already back, and the chase ended at 154 all out in 18.3 overs.

The match around the dismissal

Pokhara had set the target. Yuvraj Samra scored 102 off 48 balls and Kushal Bhurtel 62 off 39 as the Avengers posted 217 for 3. Mahedi Hasan took 3 for 24 in the reply. The scorecard, carried by CricTracker, records Kami's dismissal in four words: obstructing the field, 21 off 19.

What the law actually says

Law 37.1.1 says a batter is out obstructing the field if, while the ball is in play, that batter wilfully attempts to obstruct or distract the fielding side by word or action. Law 34.3 allows a second strike only when it is made solely to guard the wicket, before a fielder has touched the ball. Wisden noted the ambiguity in this case: from the video it is hard to tell for certain whether Kami was swatting the ball away in anger or keeping it from rolling onto his stumps. The TV umpire read the act as deliberate obstruction, and the decision stood.

Dismissals of this kind almost never happen. Wisden pointed to a Continental Cup match between Malta and Romania in 2023, when Fanyan Mughal was given out hit the ball twice, still the only such dismissal in T20 cricket at that level. Kami's exit in Kirtipur now sits in the same small file, and it cost his team their captain at the exact moment the chase needed him.