VTCA: Mankad dismissal overshadows Deer Park and St Albans clash
An investigation is underway after a local cricket match ended in controversy after a mankad dismissal on the final ball. Here’s what happened.
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A local cricket match ended in turmoil at the weekend after a mankad dismissal on the final ball.
The result of the Victorian Turf Cricket Association match between St Albans and Deer Park is now under protest with a final result not expected to be confirmed until later in the week.
The controversial ending came as Deer Park needed two runs off the final delivery to chase down a target of 179.
St Albans emerged as one-run winners in Saturday’s Senior Division meeting at John McLeod Oval with the result now being disputed by their opposition.
On the final ball tailender Dylan Baker was dismissed as he attempted to back up via a mankad by St Albans’ Arosh Janoda.
It’s understood St Albans players had previously warned Hussain about backing up in deliveries leading up to the controversial moment.
A ball earlier, a bouncer had been disputed as to whether it should have been called a wide — if it had, the match would have been drawn heading into the last delivery.
St Albans coach Michael Else declined to comment on the issue instead congratulating Deer Park, who won last season’s Division 1 premiership to earn promotion, on a “really exciting game of cricket”.
“Everything was up against Deer Park, they had three or four guys out of their best team and put together a really strong performance,” he said.
“They’re going to cause a lot of headaches for opposition teams this season.”
VTCA chairman Zoran Havranek confirmed a protest had been lodged by Deer Park with an investigation now underway.
The status of the game is listed as “result disputed” on the VTCA website.
“We’ll go through the due process, where we work with the umpires and our sub-committee and are confident of having a result by the end of the week,” he said.
Saturday’s game was thrilling from start to finish with St Albans posting 7-178 from its 40 overs led by Janoda’s 50 runs from 55 balls.
Meanwhile, defending Ray Paxino medallist Geeth Alwis posted 49 to kickstart his season.
Deer Park looked set for victory in its run chase but lost its final five wickets for just 15 runs.
Fawad Malook top scored for the host with 47 while Shanaka Silva led the way for St Albans with 3-7 from six overs to go with his 27 runs with the bat.
“It was a credit to our guys to hang in the game,” Else said.
“We were fortunate they lost a couple of wickets then the momentum swung our way and we were able to seize it. It was a game of momentum swings and we were lucky the last one went our way.”
In other Senior Division matches, Haig Fawkner got its premiership defence off to the perfect start with a five-wicket win over Aberfeldie in the grand final rematch.
Jaspreet Bhatti top scored for the premiers with 39 as chased down Aberfeldie’s 4-199 with just two overs to spare.
Tallan Wright was Aberfeldie’s top scorer with an unbeaten 59.
Westmeadows was able to hold on for a one-run win against Yarraville Club in a hard fought contest as Aaron Evans top scored with 60 for the Warriors.
The visitors set the Clubbers 161 for victory but eventually held on with the game going down to the wire.
Chinthaka Jayasinghe, now of Yarraville Club, made 27 and took 3-18 against his former side.
Keilor showed off its potential with a 35-run run win over Druids in a low scoring affair.
Chetan Arjun top scored with 28 in the lower order to help Keilor post 9-120 from its 20 overs before bowling Druids out for just 85.
Jarryd Clements, Luke McManus, Matt Gaskett and Miguel Cummins all took two wickets.
Meanwhile, Sunshine United claimed a last over thriller against Craigieburn to come away with a four-wicket win.
An unbeaten half-century from Nalin Amarathunga guided United to their target after Craigieburn posted 8-173 from its 40 overs.
Matt Sipala took 4-31 on debut for Sunshine United.
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