You will be surprised if you know the name of the first batsman to be out due to obstruction off the field in Test cricket.

Len Hutton: A very strange scene was witnessed in Bangladesh's first innings against New Zealand in the second Test in Mirpur – batsman Mushfiqur Rahim was given out for touching the ball. Rahim had played the ball of Kiwi fast bowler Kyle Jamieson and then in vain tried to push the ball away. There was an appeal from New Zealand and Rahim was out. In the score card it was written as obstruction of the field – before the change in the law in 2017, it would have been written as 'handled the ball'.

Whenever a batsman is out in such a strange manner, attention immediately goes towards a very popular incident. 'Obstruction of the field' is a method of dismissal by which not many batsmen have been dismissed in international cricket but here we are referring to the dismissal of Sir Leonard Hutton. He is the first batsman to be dismissed in this manner in Test cricket. The question is, how did a batsman like Hutton make such a mistake? When you know about this, you will be surprised as to what mistake Hutton was given out for? What happened then?

This was the decisive Test of the England-South Africa 5 Test series at the Oval in 1951 and England got the target of 163 runs to win. There was a strong start with openers Len Hutton and Frank Lawson making a partnership of 53 runs. A ball from off-break bowler Athol Rowan (he had earlier dismissed Hutton in 5 consecutive innings) suddenly rose up, hit Hutton's gloves, his hand went up and then Hutton felt that the ball was falling on his stumps. .

At that moment, Hutton did not even think about the wicketkeeper taking the catch – his entire focus was on preventing the ball from falling on the stumps. So tried to flick the ball with the bat – missed it. The ball neither fell on his stumps nor in the gloves of Russell Andean. This was accepted as preventing the wicketkeeper from getting close to the ball and South Africa appealed. The umpire gave Hutton out.

The thing to note is that Hutton did not deliberately stop the wicketkeeper from going near the ball, but yes, he swung the bat and this was considered an action which stopped the wicketkeeper from going near the ball. Hutton did not stop Andean outright. This was Hutton's 100th Test innings and what an amazingly memorable inning it turned out to be. He was the first batsman to be out 'obstruction of the field' in Test cricket and 5th in first class cricket.

The matter of this out does not end here. It was unfortunate to be out like this, but the umpire's decision was not wrong. Wisden wrote – 'Hutton did not deliberately stop the wicketkeeper but swung his bat – an action which prevented the wicketkeeper from reaching the ball.' Although it was legal for Hutton to do so to protect his wicket, it was also wrong to prevent the Indian from taking a catch and it made the situation difficult for him.

There are no details of what happened on the ground at that moment, but what different cricketers and reporters wrote makes this story strange. In fact, Eric Rowan and Norse, who were in the leg trap, saw everything and both appealed to umpire Dai Davis for out. As soon as the appeal was made, there was silence in the stadium – then no one understood what kind of out appeal this was?

At that, the umpire raised his finger. Hutton was also surprised and so the umpire had to tell him 'You are out – for hitting the ball twice!' On the other hand, the expert commentator on wireless, Arthur Gilligan (a famous cricketer of his time) was also surprised and asked – 'Did the wicketkeeper take the catch?' The other commentator with him was John Arlott. He said- 'I think he was caught behind the wicket.' Hutton was extremely upset, stood there but did not say anything. He could not believe that he had been given out. How long will you stand silently? Slowly, disappointed, he went back to the pavilion. By then Gilligan had started to think that he might have been caught at leg-slip.

Incidentally, the second umpire, Frank Chester, was not standing at his place to avoid the oblique sunlight falling into his eyes. He was standing at point so that he could see the stumps clearly despite being a fielder at short leg. He went to his fellow umpire and said – 'Very good decision.' After this he ran towards the scorer and explained how to record the out.

Reaching the scorer, Chester called out – 'Obstruction.' As soon as the operators wrote the unfamiliar word 'obstruction' on the scoreboard, Gilligan was stunned. Now Arlott spoke on the microphone, 'Everyone on the ground is shocked – what is happening? Arlot even said – 'But I did not see any catch being made there. The ball was on the ground.

Now, both the commentators started combining what they saw and creating their own replay of what happened on that ball. Then suddenly someone called from the box – 'He is out!'

The match became thrilling again with that strange dismissal of Hutton. The commentators started discussing previous incidents of 'obstructing the field'. How strange it is to be out like this – I didn't know why I was out. Had Chester not personally gone to the scorer to tell him how Hutton was out, who knows what would have been recorded?