Dandenong paceman Peter Siddle collected three wickets against Richmond on Saturday before the umpires pulled the stumps on play late in the afternoon.By Glen Atwell
DANDENONG Cricket Club’s premier firsts side suffered its first loss of the season, after being stumped by the light when the umpires called a controversial end to play during its one-day match against Richmond on Saturday.
Richmond scored 8/257 from 50 overs with Aiden Blizzard blasting 15 fours and two sixes, racing to 96 from 88 deliveries, before being edging one to Dandenong wicketkeeper Ricky Damiano.
Peter Siddle was the best of the Dandenong bowlers, collecting 3/41 from his 10 overs.
The Panthers were well on their way to chasing down the 258 runs required for victory and at 5/167, with Adrian Burgiel and Darren Pattinson at the crease, Richmond had bowled just 29 overs.
Panthers’ captain Warren Ayres said Richmond had fallen behind in the over rate.
“I would say they were four overs behind schedule,” he said.
With light dwindling, there was no talk of leaving the field, as both teams agreed to play on.
“None of the players wanted to go off,” Ayres said.
But a dropped catch in the outfield sparked field umpires, Damien Herft and John Ward into action.
Ayres said all of a sudden they were told play was finished and the umpires walked off.
He said in all his years of cricket, he had never seen anything like it before and said not even the players knew what was happening.
“No-one knew who had won, it made a real mockery of it, we were very disappointed to lose the six points,” he said.
“We were going to win. In the end the side that was slow to bowl the overs, was rewarded with the win.”
But Bob Stratford, the Premier League’s director of umpiring said the umpires had the final say of when to pull the stumps.
“The umpires are the final arbiters of whether the conditions are fit for play,” he said.
Mr Stratford said the dropped catch might have been relevant in the circumstances.
“If the player was running through mud, then play would be stopped,” he said.
Mr Stratford also said that if bad light was offered to the batsmen and it was refused, then play would continue.
But Warren Ayres said the conditions were perfect in the outfield and that at no stage was the light offered to the batsmen.
“There was no talk of bad light, all the players wanted to play and the umpires just pulled the pin,” he said.
Luckily, the first two-day match of the season starts this Saturday when Dandenong take on Carlton at Princes Park.
Hopefully the men in white will be able to stay till stumps.
