In a rare of the rarest events, England batter Joe Clarke hit a ball to the roof of the covered stadium in a Big Bash League match on Saturday. The incident took place on the last ball of the third over of Melbourne Stars' chase of 163 runs against Melbourne Renegades at Docklands Stadium. Will Sutherland bowled a 129.1 kmph delivery to Clarke outside the off the stump. It was a back-of-a-length delivery and Clarke failed to get his timing right. However, he put some immense power in the shot and that saw the ball travelling a good distance in air and hitting the roof of the stadium before falling around the mid-wicket region.
As per the rules in BBL, Clarke was awarded a six. Watch the incident here:
Clarke played a fine knock of 59 runs off 37 balls with the help of two fours and five sixes.
It is interesting to note that a similar incident happened again in the game when Beau Webster' shot hit the roof of the stadium on the bowling of Tom Rogers. It was the first ball of the 16th over.
The match had started with the Stars winning the toss and opting to bowl first. The Renegades posted 162 for 7 on the board in the stipulated quota of 20 overs. Sam Harper was their top run-scorer with 51 off 36 balls, while Jonathan Wells hit a 44 off 24 balls. For the Stars, Liam Hatcher and Brody Couch were the pick of the bowlers with figures of 2/34 and 2/40, respectively.