COMMENT: A match to remember – but for the right reasons, hopefully

A memorable encounter between Northern and Leigh risks being remembered for the wrong reasons. 

Jac Kennedy and Tyler McGladdery made 70s in their stand of 152 for the second wicket; then Northern’s James Cole declared aggressively on 197/6 in pursuit of a win to boost their title chances.

Leigh, in need of points at the other end, slipped to 75/7 as Dan Wilson took 7/62; then Adam Shallcross and Finn Hulbert got them right back in it with half-centuries.

Shallcross fell to Wilson off the last ball of the 18th over of the last hour, leaving Leigh needing 20 from 12 balls. 

An exciting finish was more or less guaranteed. When Edwin Brewer plundered 18 off Tom Sephton’s over, it seemed the visitors would pull off the heist.

However, Matthew Hibbert found Wilson impossible to get off the square until the last ball of the match, which he pushed to mid-wicket for a comfortable single to level the scores.

Then came the moment – recorded and viewed on Northern’s YouTube channel, adding a modern twist to the controversy that followed. 

With the ball in wicketkeeper Cole’s hands, Brewer and Hibbert turned for a second. 

An unlikely fumble would have given Leigh the game, but Cole seldom fumbles – instead, he rolled the ball to Wilson to complete the run-out, with Hibbert having left his ground at the bowler’s end first.

So the match was tied, with 15 points each. Had the batters stayed put, it would have been a draw, yielding nine to Northern and seven to Leigh.

Reactions varied when the footage was viewed. Some saw that both sides benefited from the odd ending and cried foul, but no rule was broken.

Leigh merely took advantage of a wrinkle in the points system, and Northern merely did what they had to in order to save the game, once the batters had set off.

That a self-destructive course of action should allow a side to more than double their points tally is perhaps something to be looked at in future. 

But the players have to play by the rules as they are, not as they possibly should be – cricket’s obsession with unwritten rules keeps tripping it up, when the solution is simply to write the damn things down.

And batters should always, ALWAYS, keep running off the last ball. 

The footage has since been made private on YouTube, but not before it had been viewed by members of the league’s management committee, who have placed the game under review.

Both Cole and Leigh skipper Finn Hulbert have been asked for statements, as have umpires Alistair Davies and Chris Williams. The match has not been finalised on Play Cricket and no points added to either side’s tally, pending a meeting of the committee. 

That should take place on Tuesday – whether any action will be taken other than simply ratifying the result is unclear.

To do so would risk accusations of differential treatment based on the footage being available on YouTube.

Live streaming has revolutionised the way people interact with club cricket, and nobody would want to discourage clubs from getting involved.

But the truth is, Saturday’s incident was nothing new. These things happen all the time in cricket.

It would have looked strange to outsiders, watching context-free, but it was less of a contrivance than many County Championship run chases, for example.

Without the footage, it would be a footnote; instead, it risks making headlines when similar calculations are quite simply part of the game.

As it stands, and as it should hopefully remain – Leigh tied with Northern. And it was a great game.