T20 World Cup: Last ball hope turns to dust for Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe batter Sean Williams said the way his side's T20 World Cup game against Bangladesh ended was "extremely weird" and that it had been an "emotional rollercoaster" for his team in the tournament.

The ecstasy of beating former champions Pakistan on Thursday was followed by the agony of losing Sunday's Super 12 match against Bangladesh despite Williams' gallant innings of 64.

In an unprecedented incident, players of both teams were called back from the dugout after the game's last delivery was deemed a no-ball by the umpires at the Gabba.

Requiring five in the last ball, Blessing Muzarabani was stumped by wicketkeeper Nurul Hasan off Mosaddek Hossain's bowling, as the Bangladeshi players and fans broke into a celebration.

Stumps were uprooted and the players were back in the dugout after shaking hands but just then the TV umpires declared the final ball as a no-ball after finding Nurul to be guilty of collecting the ball fractionally in front of the stumps, making the stumping invalid.

Williams added: "The first time I realised that there was a no-ball was actually when we were walking out to shake the umpire's hands, and they told us to stop and the replay came on the big screen, and then we all noticed that it was a no-ball. Very interesting times that,"

He revived Zimbabwe's tricky 151-run chase after they lost three wickets inside the powerplay and remained at the crease till the penultimate over.

Hasan's stumping appeared clean to the naked eye but upon checking with the TV umpire Chris Gaffaney, it was found that the Tigers wicketkeeper had grabbed the ball and whipped off the bails before it could pass the stumps.

As per Rule 27.3.1: "The wicket-keeper shall remain wholly behind the wicket at the striker's end from the moment the ball comes into play until a ball delivered by the bowler touches the bat or person of the striker or passes the wicket at the striker's end or the striker attempts a run,"

"In the event of the wicket-keeper contravening this Law, the striker's end umpire shall call and signal No ball as soon as applicable after the delivery of the ball," added Rule 27.3.2.

In this case, Hasan was found by Gaffaney to have taken the ball prior to it passing the wicket.

Bangladesh batter Najmul Hossain Shanto, who smashed a career-best 71 to prop up their total, was also bemused by the way things unfolded.

"Yeah, it's a totally new experience for us, but we know that we can do well, so Mossadek bowled very well in this pressure situation. Honestly, it was a little nervous, but we believed we can do it," he said.

Bangladesh are now second on the table but with a negative run rate.

"No, we are not thinking about our run rate, honestly. We are looking to win matches. Yeah, we are not thinking that net run rate will be part of this tournament, but just we are focused on winning matches," Shanto added.