In a controversial incident that is bound to cause a lot of debate, a 20-year old batsman was denied the opportunity to score his maiden List A century by the opponents.
The unsportsmanlike incident took place during a Group B match of Regional Super50 tournament between the Leeward Islands and Kent.
The match which was played at North Sound in West Indies on Tuesday, saw Islands posting a modest target of 184 runs. But despite the meagre total, opening batsman Zak Crawley went on to reach 98 not out. At that time, Kent still needed four runs to win the game and Crawley needed two to score his century. Crawley was on strike when pacer Sheeno Bridge came to bowl. With Kent at 180/1, the match was all but over for the Leeward Island.
However, the game ended in a controversial manner. In an attempt to stop Crawley from scoring his ton, Bridge bowled a couple of wide deliveries outside off stumps. The third ball was also outside off, but Crawley managed to get bat on it. As a result, Crawley went to the non-striker’s end after taking a single.
a fantastic win by Kent against the Leeward Islands, as @zakcrawley is denied a deserved hundred by a couple of wides in the final over and finishes a superb innings on 99 not out pic.twitter.com/zbSFKGY2Ws
— Martin Shaw (@shawma1) February 6, 2018
With just one run needed, Sean Dickson tried to play out the rest of the over to ensure his partner reach his ton. But his efforts went in vain in the end. On the last delivery of the over, the right-hand batsman pushed the ball towards midwicket. Crawley called for a single but was refused by Dickson.
However, the Island fielders were not done yet and allegedly allowed the ball to reach the boundary. As a result, Crawley remained unbeaten on 99.
Not the first time:
It is not the first time, the game of cricket has witnessed such incident. Former Sri Lanka spinner Suraj Randiv had bowled a deliberate no-ball to deny Virender Sehwag a century. Last year, Kieron Pollard did something similar when Evin Lewis was looking set to complete his ton.
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