During the 3rd Test at the SCG in January 2017, Pakistan captain Azhar Ali was involved in what might be the most bizarre run-out in Test cricket history. After playing a shot that went to the fielder, Azhar assumed the ball was dead and casually wandered out of his crease to have a chat with his batting partner and do some gardening of the pitch. It was the cricket equivalent of putting your car in neutral at a traffic light and getting out to check the tires.
The ball, however, was very much alive. The Australian fielders, spotting Azhar miles out of his crease and clearly not paying attention, threw the ball in and broke the stumps with the efficient cruelty of a cat that has spotted a mouse taking a nap. Azhar looked up with the expression of a man who'd just realized he'd left the oven on — confused, alarmed, and deeply embarrassed. He was given run out.
The replays made it even funnier. You could see the exact moment Azhar's brain switched off — like a computer going into sleep mode mid-task. He genuinely thought the over was done, or the ball was dead, or... something. Nobody has ever been entirely sure what Azhar was thinking, possibly including Azhar himself. His casual stroll down the pitch, his relaxed gardening with the toe of his bat, and then the sudden dawning horror as he realized what had happened created one of cricket's greatest "brain fade" moments.
It was the run-out equivalent of walking into a glass door — painful to watch but impossible not to laugh at. The clip was replayed endlessly, with slow-motion analysis that tracked the exact trajectory of Azhar's stroll, the precise moment of realization, and the subsequent sprint back to his crease that was approximately four seconds too late.