Oldham in overs misery as Rashid has a day to forget

OLDHAM skipper Rashid Hussain was left frustrated and injured after his side's CLL Championship defeat at home to Radcliffe.

Hussain saw his team docked six overs as they succumbed to a five-run defeat.

The problems began when the start was delayed for seven minutes. Then Oldham's players couldn’t get an uncooperative dog off the ground.

If that wasn’t enough, two lost balls caused more delays to the Radcliffe innings.

The visitors were bowled out for 229 following which the two umpires decided that, because of the slowness of the over rate, Oldham should lose six of their 50 overs.

And that ruling was to prove crucial as the home team were bowled out for 224 in the last of their 44 overs.

Hussain felt circumstances and the umpires' verdict cost his team victory: "By the time the pitch was marked and.the toss made we were seven minutes late in starting. Then, during Radcliffe's innings, a dog from a nearby house got on the pitch and took us 10 minutes to get it off.

"There were two lost balls, which caused hold-ups. I can’t understand how we lost six overs for seven minutes, virtually one over a minute. The dog and lost balls were not our fault.”

Hussain's misery was compounded when he ended up at the hospital after trying to take a catch off his own bowling.

"It came back hard at me and split the webbing on my hand,” he said. “I had to bat at 11, but could hardly hold the bat. Had we not lost those overs I feel we would have won the game."

One of the two umpires involved said: “We were agreed at the time (with the overs ruling) and have both checked the rules since. We were actually lenient.”