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In a significant change to the catching rules, the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) has made ‘bunny hop’ catches on the boundary illegal.
A ‘bunny hop’ is a boundary catching technique in which a fielder jumps, catches or taps the ball mid-air, hops outside the boundary, then leaps back in to complete the catch.
The prime example of this kind of catch was seen in the BBL 2023, when Michael Neser of Brisbane Heat chased a lofted drive from Sydney Sixers’ Jordan Silk. He caught the ball with a two-handed reverse cup catch but was carried over the boundary.
Following the Boundary Law, he tossed the ball up while airborne, landed outside the boundary, jumped again, and palmed the ball back into the field before returning to complete the catch.
Silk was ruled out and walked back, shaking his head in disagreement.
Later, Neser said that he drew inspiration from Matt Renshaw’s effort to catch Hobart Hurricanes’ Matthew Wade during the BBL 2020 at the Gabba.
The legality of both catches was widely discussed in cricketing circles, with strong calls to amend the existing MCC Law on boundary catching.
Now as per the new rule, which will be integrated into the ICC Playing Conditions this month and then into the MCC’s Laws of Cricket in October 2026, a fielder who is airborne can only touch the ball once beyond the boundary and will need to come back inside the field for the catch to be called fair.
It is pertinent to mention that the new rule will be added to the ICC playing conditions as early as the new WTC cycle, which is scheduled to commence with Sri Lanka and Bangladesh on June 17 in Galle.
However, the law itself will take effect from October 2026, when the next round of changes will come into play.
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