Crowe twice foiled by rule

Press, 28 January 1986, Page 1

Crowe twice foiled by rule

By

KIP BROOK

NZPA Staff Correspondent Adelaide

In a strange twist, New Zealand’s Martin Crowe has now been twice on the wrong end of the no-ball rule of World Series Cup cricket.

An umpire, Mr Tony Crafter, of South Australia, amazingly gave Crowe out yesterday for a Bruce Reid delivery which rose above shoulder height, touched the bat and went to Allan Border at second slip.

Border took the catch but Crowe was stunned to be given out on what was widely considered a noball.

Thirteen days earlier, Crowe was bowling under lights at Sydney and had Greg Ritchie on 50 caught behind by Ervin McSwee-

ney when Australia was 129 for four in the thirtyeighth over. However, that umpire did not give Ritchie out because he ruled Crowe’s delivery had risen about the batsman’s shoulder.

Ritchie went on to score 68 and Australia easily reached the 153-run winning target

This no-ball definition was introduced this year, to prevent bowlers sending down too many shortpitched deliveries.

The captain of the New Zealand team, Jeremy Coney, would not make any comment about Martin Crowe’s dismissal in their one day drubbing of Australia at the Adelaide Oval yesterday. But he said the umpires must be tight on the

no-ball and wide calls.

“The umpires must rule in favour of the batsmen.

that’s why the rule was introduced when the West Indies fast bowlers were sending down all that short pitched stuff last year,” he said.

Coney said the reshuffling of the batting line-up had paid dividends.

“The move to open with John Bracewell did work to an extent. It got Martin Crowe in early and it broke up their line with the right-left batters.

“This gave us a faster start.”

“I think John Wright enjoyed a break in the middle with the ball not seaming around quite so much.

“There may have been a hint that Australians were tired with two

games in a row, I don’t know,” said Coney. The’ captain of the Australian team, Allan Border, said he thought Crowe’s dismissal might have been marginal but the batsman ducked down in playing the shot. “It’s all right sitting up here looking at 44 replays of the shot; the umpire has to make a snap deci-, sion and you have to accept it.”

Border was not so much disappointed with the loss as the way Australia lost.

“But we won yesterday’s (Sunday’s) game against India to put us into the final. It’s pretty hard playing two games in a row,” he said. In a television interview later, Border said the match was “total annihilation” for Australia;