by Abhishek Mukherjee
Northampton.
Chasing 212 against Worcestershire in a NatWest T20 match, Northamptonshire were 144/2 after 15 overs Alex Wakely and Josh Cobb at the crease. Shahid Afridi was waiting in the pavilion. It was gettable.
The batsmen were going all out, running for everything. The bowlers were doing their best to stem the flow of runs. Wickets were not the need of the hour.
So, Worcestershire captain Daryl Mitchell stopped Moeen Ali in his run-up and asked wicketkeeper Ben Cox to stand on the edge of the 30-yard circle.
This had precedence in limited-overs cricket (even at international level), but Cox went a step further: he took his gloves and pads off. It made sense: a spinner was bowling, you were standing on the edge of the circle...
This obviously led to a stoppage in play as umpires Nick Cook and Graham Lloyd huddled together.
They referred to Law 40: "The wicketkeeper is the only fielder permitted to wear gloves and external leg guards."
But the converse was not mentioned anywhere. It was not compulsory for a wicketkeeper to wear gloves (doing away with pads is common these days).
They allowed Cox to go on. What this meant was that Worcestershire played without what we generally perceive as a wicketkeeper.
The photograph was clicked by journalist-analyst Ciaran Thomas. Cox is that very straight third man.
This happened on 5 June 2015.