Dead Ball

[missingleg]

Hi all,

I had difficulty last season interpreting the phrase 'finally settled into the wicketkeeper's gloves', and the ball therefore becoming dead.

I see it very often - the wicketkeeper stands up to the stumps, and the batsman leaves a delivery outside off-stump. Then the wicketkeeper holds the ball, in one glove, up to the bails, hoping for the batsman to raise his foot, or even walk out of his ground, in an attempt to stump him - despite the fact that many seconds have passed since he collected it.

Is this fair? Is the ball dead in that instance?

[wisden17]

This is fair and the ball is not dead.

[missingleg]

Thanks, I was confused because the ball had settled into his gloves.

[wisden17]

Just to add to my answer, the MCC Open Learning Manual has this to say with regards to the meaning of "finally settled":

It must be clear to him [the umpire] that neither the wicket-keeper nor the bowler is intending further action. Obvious indicators, not to be regarded as the only possibilities, are the wicketkeeper passing the ball on without urgency to another fielder, or the bowler with the ball in his hand beginning to walk back to his starting point for the next delivery.

[missingleg]

Thank you.