Bowler stunned as wicket overturned for bizarre reason

New South Wales batter Daniel Hughes was the beneficiary of a bizarre incident in which he had his wicket overturned in the Marsh Cup.

Hughes was opening the batting for the Blues as they set about chasing Tasmania's 198 in their one-day fixture at Junction Oval in Melbourne.

It was in the very first over of the chase, with NSW already on 0-5, when Hughes nicked a Riley Meredith delivery to be caught behind.

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The Tasmanian players appealed and the umpire gave it out, but Hughes stood at his crease pointing to something behind the bowler.

The umpire turned around to see a white towel lying on the turf, and replays showed the rag had fallen out of Meredith's pants while he was running in to bowl.

Fielders often keep a towel tucked into their pants to use to wipe the ball between deliveries and overs.

But if it falls out during a delivery, and distracts the batter, the rules state the ball should be called dead.

Upon realising what had happened, the umpire ruled a dead ball and Hughes was permitted to remain at the crease.

The Cricket Australia commentators noted Hughes made the decision to still play at the ball even after the towel fell out.

"Very late from Hughes, but he did certainly take that backing-away motion," one said.

The other commentator pointed out, "he should have just backed away and not played a shot, he shouldn't have swung at the ball. He should have walked away, which he's well within his rights".

Hughes was on 4 at the time of the bizarre incident, and went on to score 58 as the Blues won by six wickets.