Not often does one see more impact made on a match by other than any of the 22 players. Even in those cases, weather usually comes out as the winner. The Oval Test, however, was an entirely different story. Throughout the series, umpiring had remained dubious at its best. The Oval was the stage where umpires, Darrell Hair in particular, took centre-stage. The match ended in horrid circumstances with the umpires refusing to continue and England awarded the match.

The inconsequential match started with Inzamam ul Haq winning the toss and putting the opposition in. It proved to be a golden toss to win as Pakistan bundled out England for a meagre 173. Mohammad Asif’s return to the side invigorated the seam attack, an attack that was lacking the killer-punch earlier. Alastair Cook top-scored with 40 while Andrew Strauss and Chris Read got into their 30s. Four wickets apiece to Asif and Umar Gul brightened Pakistan’s prospects.

In reply, Pakistan, for a change, did not lose an early wicket. However, Mohammad Hafeez injured his leg to retire hurt for 8. Imran Farhat played some fluent strokes as he dominated the wayward bowling. Pakistan managed their highest opening stand of the series off 70 runs. As Farhat departed for a well-composed 91, Hafeez returned to join Mohammad Yousuf. The duo combined in a 177-run partnership before Hafeez got out for an impressive 95. Yousuf was elegant as ever, making full use of the two reprieves offered to him before he had even got into double-figures. He brought up his 19th test century, his third of the series, with an onslaught of boundaries off Paul Collingwood. A mini-collapse saw Pakistan lose their momentum. Inzamam, in his last test innings on English soil, went for 31. Faisal Iqbal (58*), however, received valuable support from the tail-enders to push the score to 504. Harmison picked up four while Hoggard grabbed three wickets.

England started their second innings 331 runs behind. Trescothick’s torrid series ended when he was caught-behind for four. Strauss and Cook batted aggressively to put on 107 runs for the second wicket. Cook also got a favour from West Indian umpire Billy Doctrove as his bat-pad off Kaneria went unnoticed. Strauss, however, fell LBW to a sharp leg-spinner by Kaneria. Replays suggested the ball might have gone down the leg-side. England’s wonder-boy Kevin Pietersen carried on their hopes of saving the match with an array of strokes. Cook was then trapped leg-before by Umar Gul for 80.

The real drama was about to unfold. England, 230 for three after 55 overs, suddenly became 235 for three. Darrell Hair, sensing ball-tampering, inspected the ball and after consulting with Doctrove, signalled 5 penalty-runs towards the scorers. Pietersen was given the authority to choose the replacement ball. In the next 16 overs before tea, England mustered 63 runs. Ironically, Kevin Pietersen (96) got out to the ball of his choice – a ball that kept low and was well grasped by Kamran Akmal. The teams went for tea with England at 298 for four. After tea, the Pakistani players did not show up, protesting against allegedly having tampered with the ball. With the umpires and batsmen back in the hut, tension prevailed over the state of the match. After a few diplomatic talks, Inzamam led his team to the middle. Darrell Hair, however, was adamant that according to Cricket’s Law 21.3, Pakistan had forfeited the match by not showing up within given time. The play was abandoned for the day.

In a special meeting by the ICC, it was decided that the umpires were right in saying that Pakistan had forfeited the match. As a result, England were declared the winners, winning the series 3-0. After nearly four days of exciting cricket, this ugly incident not only left a bitter taste in the mouth of the fans, but also left a bad impression on the game of cricket. ICC must make bold decisions to avoid such incidents from happening again – for the good of the players as well as the game.

© Copyright 2006. PointCricket.