We Won! Wait, Maybe Not.

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Don't celebrate until the game is over. That’s a rule violated surprisingly often in the sports world, most recently by a women’s cricket team from Australia.

With one ball to go, the Sydney Sixers needed two runs to tie and three to win in a match against the Melbourne Renegades in the Big Bash League, the top-level competition in Australia.

Sarah Aley hit that last ball, but it didn’t go far, just enough for the batsmen to take a single run.

Melbourne celebrated; it had won the game by one run. Or had it? While the celebrations went on, the Sydney runners quickly dashed between the wickets for another run. After consultation, the umpires allowed it. Tie score.

The Australian television announcers swung from “a magnificent win to the Renegades” to “wait, this will be very, very interesting” to “this is incredible.”

The issue was whether the ball was dead and the game was indeed over when the celebrations began. The cricket laws state: “The ball shall be considered to be dead when it is clear to the bowler’s end umpire that the fielding side and both batsmen at the wicket have ceased to regard it as in play.”

The Marylebone Cricket Club, guardian of the laws of the game, backed the umpire’s decision, noting that one player on Melbourne did realize the game was not over: While her teammates jumped in jubilation, Amy Satterthwaite grabbed the ball away from them and desperately tried to put out the runner, failing by an instant.

“I think it’s a pretty good learning curve for us, to be honest,” Satterthwaite told reporters. “Don’t celebrate too early is the lesson we’ve learned today.”

The dead ball rule seldom comes into play; normally no one would dare try to steal an extra run when a fielder is holding the ball nearby. But in this case, the celebrations gave Sydney its opening.

It is far from the only time premature celebrations were costly in sports.

Cyclists, runners and triathletes have frequently thrust their arms in the air as unseen rivals passed them just before the finish.

Among the more famous incidents, at least to Americans, are the Stanford band taking the field in 1982 while California was running back a kick for the win; Leon Lett gesturing with the football in 1993 and allowing it to be stripped just short of a Super Bowl touchdown; and Lindsey Jacobellis trying an unnecessary trick when leading the snowboard cross race at the Olympics in 2006 and falling.

More recently, an Alabama softball player missed home plate after a game-tying home run and was tagged out while being mobbed by her teammates.

Fans, too, can be at fault. In February, St. Bonaventure supporters stormed the court after a “win” over Virginia Commonwealth. But there were still four-tenths of a second on the clock. A technical foul assessed for the fans’ antics pushed the game to overtime, and V.C.U. won.

Things went a little better for the embarrassed players from Melbourne on Wednesday. They moved on to cricket’s version of overtime, called a super over. And to their great relief, they won it.