South East win USACA T20 amid controversial finish

South East defeated USA Development XI in the final of the 2014 USACA T20 Championship by four runs in controversial circumstances after being awarded five penalty runs. According to the live update feed on USACA's official Facebook page, USA Development XI won the game taking the winning single off the final delivery of the match, but about 40 minutes later it replaced that announcement with: "UPDATE: The USA Development team was penalized 5 runs for a batsman obstructing the fielder. The 2015 USACA National T20 Champion is the South East Region!"

At around 6 am on Monday, about 11 hours after the final ended, USACA's Facebook page was edited to delete the reference to "obstructing the fielder", and was replaced with an explanation that the penalty runs were awarded for "a running-on-the-pitch infraction".

USA Development XI coach Reginald Benjamin told ESPNcricinfo of the confusion all around. "Our guys were celebrating after the final ball, and their guys were celebrating after the final ball so it was very confusing," he said. "Anybody who said that the runs were added to the scoreboard is telling a lie. Nobody officially explained anything to us.

"Afterwards someone said that on a run-out attempt earlier, our guy went for a single but then turned back to make his ground, and the bowler threw and hit our guy in the back. The ball went away and we took a run. They started shouting that we shouldn't have taken a run. The run counted, and the umpire allowed the run. They said that was the incident [for which] the umpire awarded five runs to the fielding team. It's a complete lie. Everybody watching the game knows we won the game."

Benjamin insisted that at no point did either umpire signal five penalty runs to the scorers during his team's chase, and that South East's total on the Central Broward Regional Park Stadium scoreboard was never adjusted from 112 to 117.

That 112 owed largely to Kushal Ganji's 28 not out. Fast bowler David Pieters' 3 for 15 played a major role in restricting South East, and Nisarg Patel's 28 spurred USA Development XI's reply. A year after being the USACA T20 MVP, Nisarg finished the tournament with 217 runs at 43.40, behind only the eventual tournament MVP Steven Taylor, who captained South East and finished with 276 runs at 69, and nine wickets to boot. His wicket tally was joint second-highest.

The farcical finish, though, consigned these contributions to mere footnotes. According to the official live feed, USA Development XI entered the final over at 92 for 7, still needing 21 runs to win. All hell was about to break loose. Andre Lindsay hit the first two balls for sixes, bringing the equation down to nine off four. A run-out on the next ball was followed by a couple, after which the bowler, Herlando Johnson, was unable to continue the over, and was replaced by Dunae Nathaniel. Two more runs came off the fifth delivery, leaving five to win off the final ball.

Nathaniel then proceeded to bowl three wides. The batsmen took an extra single off the third wide, making the scores level with one ball still left. In his fourth attempt, Nathaniel bowled the final ball legitimately. A single was taken, after which USACA updated its social media page declaring USA Development XI the winners only to reverse the result less than an hour later.

USA Development XI were not completely unaware of a possibility of the penalty runs. Benjamin said the first time he became aware of such a likelihood was three balls into the final over, after the two sixes had been hit, when a coach from an eliminated team came to him and mentioned a rumour that his team was being assessed five penalty runs though the scoreboard still showed 112 and not 117.

There is no provision in the laws of cricket for five penalty runs to be assessed to a batsman for obstructing the field. The penalty for obstructing the field is the batsman's wicket. No law prevents a batsman from taking an overthrow off his body although batsmen usually decline such runs so as to not go against the spirit of the game.

Even though the USACA changed the explanation for that ruling to running on the pitch, it still couldn't be said that the umpires made an entirely correct decision: in such instances all the runs accrued from such a delivery - except for no-ball or wide penalties - are disallowed, which didn't happen in this case.

When contacted for an official statement, tournament director and USACA first vice-president Owen Grey stated that he was awaiting the umpires' report on the match before making comment, and deferred to USA Cricket Umpire's Association president Fitzroy Hayles. In an email response, Hayles said he "was not in possession of the details of the match", and as a result could not provide a detailed explanation.

This is not the first instance in which South East has won a USACA tournament match in strange circumstances due to being awarded penalty runs. At the 2009 USACA Eastern Conference tournament in Washington, DC, South East needed 200 to beat a USACA Directors XI team, and lost their last recognised batsman for 50, at the team score of 198 for 8. A few moments later, all players began walking off the field, and it was later announced that South East had been awarded five penalty runs by the umpires after one of them claimed that the USACA Directors XI wicketkeeper Carl Monroe "used obscene language". Monroe's coach claimed Monroe was cursing himself for a missed stumping earlier against the same batsman.

South East had reached the final of this weekend's event in Florida after defeating New York by 47 runs in a Sunday morning semi-final. Timothy Surujbally, Omari Williams and Taylor all scored fifties in South East's 238 for 5, the biggest total of the tournament. Nicholas Standford produced 54 off 35 opening for New York, but no one else could contribute a big score. They were bowled out for 191 in the final over. Nathaniel took 4 for 29 for South East.

USA Development XI's progressed to the final defeating North West in a semi-final rematch by three wickets. North West were restricted to 163 for 8 as Nisarg and captain Timil Patel took two wickets each for USA Development XI. Ashok Singh made 44 opening for North West and was supported down the order by Saqib Saleem who made 40.

The USA Development XI chase was sparked by 22 runs in the opening over from Nisarg before Roy Silva smashed 50 off 22 at No. 4. USA Development XI overhauled the target with 23 balls to spare. Pranay Suri went wicketless in the semi-final for North West but was later rewarded for a solid group stage with the award for the best bowler of the tournament with 12 wickets. Suri had two four-wicket hauls, and claimed three wickets more than anyone else on the weekend.