Nottinghamshire pace bowler Luke Fletcher was admitted to the hospital after being struck on the head by a ball during his side’s six-wicket defeat against Birmingham Bears in the NatWest T20 Blast at Edgbaston. The incident was strange as we have hardly seen such instances on the cricket field. This was so horrific that things could have been much worse. In fact, on social media as well people mentioned how horrific it was watching it live. Some said they felt much worse had happened, but he is safe now. The episode happened during fourth over of Birmingham’s reply to Nottinghamshire Outlaws’ 158 for six.
When the ball was hit back at him, he got very little to no time at all to react, as he was on his follow-through and maintaining balance is difficult. The batsman who is responsible for hitting the ball is Sam Hain. He hit the ball like ‘a trace of bullet’, it was nailed. Soon after the incident happened, Luke was given immediate medical assistance and the game was also halted for 30 to 45 minutes.
Soon, Fletcher was seen walking off the field along with a physio and a towel over his head and was subsequently taken to a Nottingham hospital for further examination.
Horrible injury to @fletcherluke but looks like he’s doing well off to hospital #legend pic.twitter.com/dXsdYsGSqW
— Jake Ball (@JakeBall) July 8, 2017
Once Fletcher was out of danger, his mate Jake Ball tweeted his photo from the hospital, donning an oxygen mask and giving the thumbs up, in the back of an ambulance. He seemed safe.
“Horrible injury to @fletcherluke but looks like he’s doing well off to hospital #legend,” Ball tweeted.
For a horrifying minute there, it looked like I had watched someone get killed by a cricket ball #lukefletcher
— Tommy Atkins __ (@Chet_Manley1) July 8, 2017
Post match, Notts Outlaws head coach Peter Moores said, “Luke has obviously got concussion but the reports we’re hearing back are that they think he’s going to be fine and hopefully he will go home either tonight or tomorrow morning. It sounds good news at the moment and we’re looking forward to catching up with him when he’s back and hopefully OK.”
After coming on to bowl, Luke Fletcher’s first ball is hit straight back at him by Hain and hits him straight on the head. 30-0 #NottsvBears
— Nottinghamshire CCC (@TrentBridge) July 8, 2017
