England bowler Stuart
Broad runs in to bowl the final ball of the match to Stanford batsman
Chris Gayle. England made 170 for 6 off of their twenty overs, and
West Indies are 169 for 5. Two runs are therefore required to win in
the unprecedented, multi-million dollar winner take all extravaganza.
The ball is slightly short of a length and Gayle rocks back and pulls
it towards the deep midwicket boundary. The packed crowd in the
floodlit stadium roars in anticipation as the white ball flies through
the humid night air towards the rope.
The West Indies players on the team balcony rise up as one and watch
the ball on its flight over the rope. In that instant all of them have
similar thoughts, with some slight variations. Some think of the new
Porsche they’ll be buying, whilst for others it’s the choice of luxury
over speed and a Rolls Royce in the driveway. Talking of driveways,
others think of a new house overlooking the sea on their native island
– Barbados, Trinidad, Jamaica. One is even thinking of the big
charitable donation he’s going to make to the orphanage where he grew
up.
Out in the field, the English fielders watch the ball in the air and
have an entirely different set of emotions. Some of them are thinking –
‘’What an idiot that guy Broad is – he’s just cost me half a million
quid. So much for that new house in the country, or the motor cruiser
I was going to buy – or the money I was going to use to enhance my
retirement fund.’’
Never mind the handy twenty Broad made in the last couple of overs of
the England innings to help take them to a competitive total after the
top order had self destructed….
- or the superlative catch he took early on to dismiss Sarwan…
- or the diving stop on the boundary in the previous over that stopped a certain four…
- or the two yorkers he’d speared into Gayle’s leg stump earlier in
this last over that prevented the batsman getting the ball off the
square…
To all the England fielders, Broad is now the villain – although all of
them will, of course, mouth the standard ‘all in this together’
platitudes when faced with a TV camera or radio microphone after the
game.
However – with his Garneresque height, Broad has brought the ball down
from over nine feet onto the hard pitch and it has therefore risen off
the length and come off the bat slightly higher than Gayle had planned.
As everyone watches the ball, they suddenly realise that its parabola
is slightly steeper than they’d appreciated and the ball is flying on a
direct course to the England fielder standing on the boundary. Durham
quick bowler – Steve Harmison.
Earlier a lot of the England fielders were having the same thoughts
about Harmison as they subsequently did about Broad as his first two
overs were wildly inaccurate and had gone for twenty five runs. Now
though, they know that Harmison has a safe pair of hands and start
daring to dream that maybe the house in Devon or motor cruiser might
not be lost after all.
On the West Indies balcony, hearts are in mouths as thoughts of luxury
cars dissipate, to be replaced by those of angry relatives and friends
who have been promised a share of the spoils and will no doubt be
disappointed.
Stunningly though, Harmison loses the ball in the lights, and it’s onto
him before he can ready himself. It falls through his hands, bounces
off of his shin and rolls off in front of him.
In the middle of the pitch Gayle and Ramdin are standing stock-still
staring at the tableau playing itself out on the boundary edge. As
Harmison drops the ball they realise that they’ve earned a reprieve,
and start running.
One run is completed and the scores are now tied. The batsmen turn and start the twenty two yard dash towards mega-riches.
In a blind rage on the boundary Harmison has managed to pick the ball
up and thrown in a return to the wicket. Matt Prior is waiting behind
the stumps, he takes the ball cleanly and, in a fluid motion, removes
the bails as Gayle dives for the line.
As the dust settles the players and crowd are momentarily silent as
they all turn to the umpire. Simon Taufel stands up from his crouch,
shakes his head and slowly his hands move to describe the outline of a
television screen.
Out on the pitch everything is oddly still, like the epicentre of a
tornado, as the England team huddle together and the two batsmen stand
slightly apart staring at the screen.
Up in the TV studio, a Sky executive stares at the various replays on
the monitor in front of him. It’s his job to feed the images through
to the third umpire sitting in the officials’ booth next door. Shots
from two camera angles clearly seems to show that Gayle has made his
ground and he reaches over to press the button to send the pictures
through, but he pauses for a second as a third, less clear picture
seems to suggest that the bat was above the ground when Prior removed
the bails.
Behind the Sky man stands a representative from Sir Allen Stanford’s
organising committee. He hasn’t said a word to anyone all day but has
simply sat there - a sullen, slightly intimidating presence. He’s now
watching the same replays as the TV man. He leans forward and points to
the third screen where Gayle’s bat, obscured by shadow, seems to hover
above the crease.
‘’Send that one through and it’s a tie. That means there’ll have to be a re-match tomorrow. Think of the extra revenue!’’
(Mark can also be found here. Click here to know more about him)