Club bowler Decland Redwood apologises after stopping batsman making maiden ton

Cricket

A club bowler has apologised for his poor sportsmanship after throwing the ball to the boundary to deny an opposition player a maiden century.

Instead of bowling, Purnell's Decland Redwood left Minehead batsman Jay Darrell on 98 not out by sending the ball to the boundary to give Minehead the five runs they needed to win.

Redwood, who was banned for nine games by the Somerset Cricket League, said in a statement that he "deeply regrets" his actions, which "were not in keeping with the spirit of cricket".

He added: "I acknowledge that I made an ill-judged and impulsive decision on approaching the wicket to bowl a no-ball, which resulted in a boundary and gave an unnatural ending to what was otherwise a competitive game of cricket.

"Whilst I am disappointed with the severity of the ban imposed on me by the league, I will not be appealing against their decision."

The Somerset Cricket League said the incident "brought the SCL and cricket in general into disrepute" and "was against the spirit of the game".

Minehead tweeted after the game that it was "not nice to see" and, even though the Purnell captain "apologised to the batsman on behalf of his bowler", that "some things just can't be undone".

Darrell was a little more diplomatic and said it was a "shame the way it ended but oh well".