Over The 'Bourda' (22 April 1999)

22 April 1999

Over The 'Bourda'

Haydn Gill in Georgetown

Bourda, after watching over of a bizarre finish to a limited-overs cricket international six years ago, witnessed yet another confused and chaotic climax here Wednesday.

As in 1993, hundreds of exuberant spectators invaded the field before play could be completed.

As then, International Cricket Council (ICC) match referee Raman Subba Row decided the outcome was a tie.

The drama began to unfold after the completion of the penultimate over when the crowd initially invaded the field thinking the match had ended and grabbing stumps. The scoreboard had indicated that the 30th and last over had been completed.

After the field was cleared and play resumed, at 5:55 p.m. it came down to Australia needing four runs off the final ball to win the fifth Cable & Wireless One-Day International against the West Indies.

As Steve Waugh pulled Keith Arthurton's final ball to Stuart Williams on the long-on boundary, about 500 spectators and more than 100 policemen had already started to sprint to the middle.

Waugh and Shane Warne desperately scrambled two runs, and were about to go for the third when the stumps at either end of the pitch were uprooted by fans.

At one point Waugh had to struggle with a spectator who tried to take his bat.

The general feeling at the time was that two runs were scored, and Australia, replying to the West Indies' 173 for four in a match that was reduced to 30 overs because of rain, had ended on 172 for seven.

It was recorded that way in the official scorebook and the confirmation will come after a report is submitted to the ICC today.

Subba Row summoned the two captains and managers to a meeting, and after half-hour of deliberations, he emerged just after 7 p.m. describing the confusion a "great shame".

"Cricket has got to be the winner. We cannot go on with rancour that such a thing might have happened or might not have happened," he said.

"I think when you get chaos like that, I think you have got to make sure that commonsense prevails. I personally think that a tie is the right answer."

An experienced match referee and former England Test player, Subba Row explained the thinking behind his decision.

"The third run really would have been difficult; but as you can see, Steve is fighting his way down the wicket to get the third with all those people around him," he said while reviewing television replays with Trans World International commentator David Hookes.

"The situation had really become quite impossible, but they had started on the third run, and that's something that influenced me considerably."

In 1993 Subba Row also declared a tie in the match between West Indies and Pakistan when there was a virtual carbon copy of what took place yesterday.

West Indies needed two runs off the final ball which they achieved, but opposing captain Wasim Akram successfully protested that the crowd had impeded his team in trying to field the ball.

The two runs were credited, but Subba Row ignored the playing condition that would have given the West Indies the match by virtue of losing fewer wickets.

Source :: The Barbados Nation (https://www.nationnews.com/)