The objective of the sport of cricket is that of the two teams contesting a match, the team that scores most runs wins the match. Each side has eleven players comprising of players designated as batters and bowlers. The batters are tasked with the role of scoring runs whereas the bowlers try to negate the flow of runs or get the batters dismissed. A team’s innings ends when ten batters are dismissed or all overs of the innings are bowled out.
At any given time, a legal delivery in cricket will have two batters on either side of a pitch, a bowler who bowls and ten players positioned on the field in accordance with the field restriction rules. The best possible outcome for a bowler is getting a batter dismissed. The wicket of a batter marks the ball dead immediately after the event occurs. As per Law 20.1.1.3 of the Marylebone Cricket Club’s Laws of Cricket, “The ball will be deemed to be dead from the instant of the incident causing the dismissal.”
This law thus implies that in no circumstance can two batters be dismissed on the same ball by the bowler. The batter who is dismissed first is out and the other batter survives. However, it is notable to state that this rule applies for a single legal delivery bowled by the bowler. There are only two scenarios when a team or a bowler can get two wickets in one ball.
In the first scenario, a bowler bowls a wide, and the wocket-keeper collects the ball and stumps the batter who is outside the crease. The batter is deemed out and since the ball was a wide, it is not counted as a fair delivery. If the next batter is dismissed on the immediate next ball that is bowled legally, then the team or the bowler is said to claim two wickets in one legal ball.
In the second scenario, a batter is run-out, but the delivery is signalled as a no ball. A run-out can be inflicted on a no ball. So the batter is out, but on an illegal delivery. If the batter to follow is out on the immediate next legal ball, then yet again, the fielding side gets two wickets in one ball.
Thus, a bowler or a team can claim two wickets in one ball, provided the legality of the ball delivered is considered.