Lancashire’s Dane Vilas questions umpires’ hastiness to annouce dead ball

Dane Vilas questioned why Lancashire were denied the chance to run another bye from the last legitimate delivery of the Vitality Blast final which would have seen them beat Hampshire.

With Lancashire requiring four from the last ball, Nathan Ellis’ yorker cannoned into Richard Gleeson’s stumps but as fireworks filled the night sky, replays showed the Hampshire seamer had overstepped.

Gleeson missed the free hit that followed but he and Tom Hartley scampered through for a single and then appeared to complete a second run that would have been enough to level the scores and give victory to Lancashire as their powerplay score was superior, with the sides also tied in losing eight wickets.

But amid chaotic scenes Hampshire were hoovering up stumps and despite Vilas remonstrating with the umpires at the end, it was deemed a dead ball had been called before the second run was completed.

Law 20.2 states “whether the ball is finally settled or not is a matter for the umpire alone to decide”, and while Vilas ultimately accepted what happened, he felt the officials were a little hasty.

“We thought the ball was still live,” Vilas said. “There was a little bit of confusion out there but the umpires called the ball dead as soon as they took the stumps off at the striker’s end.

“Everything was going on out there at that stage and I can’t be 100 per cent sure of what was said, exactly, but we thought maybe we could have had a look and seen if there was a review or something.

“But obviously there wasn’t and it ended up going Hampshire’s way.”

Asked if the umpires could have conferred after a replay, Vilas added: “We look for everything else but ultimately it’s their decision and their decision is final, which we as players know and