The majority of supporters who attended the NUL match between Somerset Sabres and Glamorgan Dragons at the County Ground in Taunton on Sunday will have left the ground confused by what took place during the final over.

According to those spectators who had been keeping their scorecards up to date, going into the last over Glamorgan needed twelve runs to reach their revised target of 209 with their last pair at the wicket. Michael Kasprowicz struck a four off Steffan Jones first delivery, and then took a single off the second, which left people assuming that Glamorgan required seven to win off the last four balls.

However, unnoticed by most people in the ground, the scoreboard had been changed to show that in the light of a six run penalty that had been awarded to Glamorgan by the umpires because of slow play by Somerset, they in fact only required six runs from the over.

When the number eleven batsman Andrew Davies managed to scramble a single from the penultimate ball of the over Glamorgan had won the match.

The crowd at the County Ground were bewildered and frustrated by what had taken place during that final over, and several made their feelings known to Somerset boss Peter Anderson.

In the light of Sunday’s confusion Mr Anderson has written to Alan Fordham, the Cricket Operations Manager at the England and Wales Cricket Board, to draw his attention to what took place.

Mr Anderson writes: “At the commencement of the last over, Glamorgan needed 12 to win. As Somerset were 1 over down, six penalty runs were awarded by the Umpires after signalling to the scorers and the match referee coming onto the ground. The digital scoreboard was immediately re-calculated to show 6 to win. No public announcement was made either then or beforehand.”

The Somerset boss continues: “The match ended in confusion and anger for spectators and it was necessary to deploy security guards to escort both the Umpires and Glamorgan Players from the field. Several angry spectators personally confronted me and it took quite a while to diffuse what potentially was a serious public order situation.”

Mr Anderson then goes onto to point out that in the NUL, where field placings are of vital importance, teams are expected to bowl at an over rate of 15.8 with no time allowed for fall of wickets, compared to the Championship where they are asked to bowl at 16 per hour with a two minute allowance for each wicket that falls.

The chief executive concludes: “Somerset have no complaints about the Umpires in this case. Their job is to interpret the regulations as they see fit, fair enough. It just doesn’t seem to make sense however that the ECB puts in place regulations which confuse the watching public and at the same time anger them in the heat of the moment. If there are to be penalties, then they should be points based well after the game has ended. In that way, the result stands and the heat is taken out of the situation.”

It will be interesting to see what action, if any, is taken by the ECB in the light of what happened at the County Ground on Sunday.

© SOMERSET