Darkness before dusk: A confusion-marred hat-trick

The three farcical overs of spin bowling that the two captains agreed to even after the game had technically and logically ended brought to focus a rather touchy issue about the game in general. Over-complication of a difficult to understand game, ambiguity over the implementation of rules, the confusion that generally is part of a crowd of decision makers and all that combining to be the hurdle that stops cricket from being a global sport.

Match referee for the final Jeff Crowe did apologise several times for what he called a “human error” as the panel of hand-picked elite umpires were “clouded by a simple issue”. And in a pathetically futile effort he even tried to see some positive from this unfortunate incident. “We can learn something from this,” he said. In case learning from mistakes was ICC’s forte, another Oval wouldn’t have happened. If The Oval in England had seen the controversial forfeit because of an umpire who was later debarred, the one in Barbados saw a bizarre game with two endings.

Crowe, who unfortunately answered more questions than the two captains, was short of words when explaining the collective mistake of the panel. He twice insisted that “bad light doesn’t always mean the end of day’s play since it can improve”. The counter question was: “Not when it is darkness?” hinting how there isn’t any scope of the visibility increasing at dusk. Crowe hummed and hawed about the cloud cover lifting, but his logic seemed to defy nature.

A look at the scoreboard during the final stages of the game could have been mind-numbing for even a regular cricket watcher, forget someone trying to understand the game.

After Australia had scored 281/4 in 38 overs, the reading on the scoreboard when the Aussies first premature celebration was: Total: 206. Wickets: 7. Overs: 33. Target: 269. Overs remaining: 3. Runs to win: 63. Rate required: 21. D/L: 251. Subsequently, after three overs it read as: Total: 215, Wickets: 8. Overs: 36. Target: 269. D/L target: 268. It was a collection of figures too confusing to understand.

But on a more human level too it was a disappointing affair. As Ponting said: “I would have wanted Glenn to bowl the last over since it was his last game. But with me and Mahela deciding on spin for the last three overs, I had to bank on Clarke and Symonds.”

McGrath, though, didn’t want to spoil his farewell with such negativity surrounding the final. “With my pace they say it is like a spinner bowling armers. I still could have bowled,” said the man who ironically banked on simplicity to excel at this complicated game. Maybe, there’s something the officials need to learn.

Scoreboard

Australia: A Gilchrist c Silva b Fernando 149, M Hayden c Jayawardene b Malinga 38, R Ponting run out 37, A Symonds not out 23, S Watson b Malinga 3, M Clarke not out 8.

Extras (lb4, nb3, w16) 23; Total (for 4 wickets, 38 overs): 281

Fall of wickets: 1-172, 2-224, 3-261, 4-266

Bowling: Vaas 8-0-54-0, Malinga 8-1-49-2, Fernando 8-0-74-1, Muralitharan 7-0-44-0, Dilshan 2-0-23-0, Jayasuriya 5-0-33-0

Sri Lanka: U Tharanga c Gilchrist b Bracken 6, S Jayasuriya b Clarke 63, K Sangakkara c Ponting b Hogg 54, M Jayawardene lbw b Watson 19, C Silva b Clarke 21, T Dilshan run out 14, R Arnold c Gilchrist b McGrath 1, C Vaas not out 11, L Malinga st Gilchrist b Symonds 10, D Fernando not out 1

Extras (lb1, w14): 15; Total (for 8 wickets, 36 overs): 215

Fall of wickets: 1-7, 2-123, 3-145, 4-156, 5-188, 6-190, 7-194, 8-211

Bowling: Bracken 6-1-34-1, Tait 6-0-42-0, McGrath 7-0-31-1, Watson 7-0-49-1, Hogg 3-0-19-1, Clarke 5-0-33-2, Symonds 2-0-6-1

Man of the Match: Adam Gilchrist