Gully cricket can be a challenging sport. With no umpires assisting them, the street cricketers often turn into match referees themselves to decide the fate of the batsman or the bowler. Not surprisingly, this leads to endless quarrels and banter with often the player who "owns" the bat eventually having the last laugh.

However, when street cricketers apparently from a city in Pakistan, found themselves in a spot, they did not depend on their own expertise but rather sought the intervention of the highest authority in cricket to judge a difficult ruling.

Yes, the doors of International Cricket Council (ICC) were knocked on by gully cricketers, who recently asked ICC to revisit the laws of cricket to adjudge whether the concerned batsman was out or not.

It all started when ICC received a picture from a game of tennis-ball cricket on Sunday in which the middle stump of the batsman had fallen over but the bails remained undisturbed.

The decision seemed to be a difficult one even for the apex cricketing body. "Out or Not Out?" asked the governing body of cricket to fans on social media.

Out, or not out? pic.twitter.com/1gDMP11rCn

— ICC (@ICC) March 24, 2019

Twitterati were confident the batsman in the picture was, in fact, Not Out.

Not out

— ⓚⓐⓥⓘ (@kavi_yellove) March 24, 2019

Not Out.

— Noman Qureshi (@NQsays) March 24, 2019

Not out. .. bails are not dislodged...!!!

— Saurabh panai (@saurabh_panai) March 24, 2019

Not out

— Ismailkhanikik007 (@Ismailkhanikik1) March 24, 2019

Of course Not Out....

— Ar Ssss L (@ArSsssL1) March 24, 2019

Not out

— Arindam Das (@Arindam68154475) March 24, 2019

It's not out

— Kunal sihare (@KunalSihare) March 24, 2019

But guess what? The laws of cricket say otherwise.

According to 29.1.1: "The wicket is put down if a bail is completely removed from the top of the stumps, or a stump is struck out of the ground."

Despite the bails staying intact, the batsman, in this case, was Out.

Confirming this, ICC informed the ruling to fans in a follow-up tweet.

..... and its's OUT ☝️
Find out why ➡️ https://t.co/JSz4Nxj4Ts

Tough luck to the batter (if you can say that having your middle peg knocked out!) pic.twitter.com/gjUyVHG2TO

— ICC (@ICC) March 24, 2019

Some fans who were aware of the rule chimed in with ICC's decision.

Bails aren't dislodge, but still it is out as the wicket is out of the ground. Either bails are dislodged or wicket is uprooted, it is given out

— The.girl.who.lived (@theoneplusgirl) March 24, 2019

Law 29.1.1 states that “The wicket is put down if a bail is completely removed from the top of the stumps, or a stump is struck out of the ground, (29.1.1.1) by the ball.”
Hence, this is OUT.

— B I N O Y (@beeayeanoowhy) March 24, 2019

This isn't the first instance the ICC has come to the rescue of confused gully cricketers.

Last year, a video shared by one showed the ball rolling back to the stumps after the batsman decided to take a full swing at it.

A fan named Hamza sent this video to us this morning asking for a ruling.

Unfortunately for the (very unlucky) batsman, law 32.1 confirms... Out! ☝ pic.twitter.com/y3Esgtz48x

— ICC (@ICC) May 22, 2018