Would you deliberately bowl four byes to prevent a batsman reaching a century?

Jay Darrell, playing for Minehead 2nd XI in the second tier of the Somerset league, was two runs shy of tonning up for the first time, with two runs required for victory against Purnell, when the bowler fired the ball away to the boundary

A controversy has been stirred in the Somerset Cricket League after a batsman was denied the opportunity of scoring a maiden hundred for his club when an opposing bowler decided to relieve him of the responsibility of hitting the winning runs.

Jay Darrell, playing for Minehead 2nd XI in the second tier of the Somerset league, was two runs shy of tonning up for the first time, with two runs required for victory against Purnell, when the bowler fired the ball away to the boundary for four byes plus one for the no-ball leaving him stranded on 98.

Both teams took to Twitter to make their opinions of the incident clear, Purnell for their part condemning the act of the bowler, saying: “The unsavoury scenes at the end of the game can't be condoned and both the captain and the player made full and sincere apologies to those involved after the game.”

Minehead lamented that “some things just can't be undone”, but thanked the captain for apologising on behalf of the player, throwing into doubt the bowler's personal attempt at atonement that Purnell's tweet reported.

Needless to say the tweets were trailed by a spiralling list of incandescent responses. One reported the bowler had actually laughed about it at the time, but acknowledged that his team-mates were, to a man, left unimpressed by his actions.

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The incident is an example of violation of the moral code of the game outlined in the Spirit of Cricket, which expects player to show respect for their opponents, the officials and the game's traditional values, and is one that has occurred at the highest level.

During the second season of World Series Cricket, Ian Chappell deliberately sent the ball to the fence for four wides to prevent opposite number Tony Greig, with whom he shared a long-running spat, from hitting the winning runs for his Rest of the World XI.

More recently, in last year's CPL, Kieron Pollard bowled a no-ball with opponents St Kitts and Nevis Patriots needing one to win against Pollard's Barbados Tridents and Evin Lewis unbeaten on 97 from 32 deliveries. Pollard subsequently denied overstepping on purpose.

Back in Somerset, Purnell released a statement on Sunday evening reiterating their intention to deal with the matter internally and addressed rumours of the player's identity. “While the club do not wish to comment on the player's identity we are aware of several rumours regarding one player in particular. Therefore we can confirm that R Casling was not involved in the incident.”

Many commentators on the incident had made a beeline for the scorecard on Play Cricket and inferred that offender was the one Purnell bowler to have bowled an incomplete over.