Throwback: When Jack Russell affected a stumping after the completion of the match

Gloucestershire toured Hove to face the home team Sussex at the County Ground as part of the AXA Life League in 1997. The Gloucester team were fresh off a close win during a high-scoring match against Glamorgan in Swansea while the Sussex team suffered a home defeat against Worcestershire due to a batting failure. Gloucestershire won the toss in the 40-over fixture and decided to bat first.

The visiting team’s performance was nowhere close to the effort they put a week ago. Monte Lynch’s 24 turned out to be the highest individual score for Gloucester while managing to post only 141/9. No batsman in Gloucestershire’s top eight could score at a strike rate of 60 at least. The Sussex chase began with opener Keith Greenfield playing an important role.

Greenfield scored 62 from 92 balls with help of six fours and was well ahead of the required rate. But the remaining four batsmen in Sussex’s top five could only aggregate 22 runs in the 73 balls they faced. At this point, Keith Newell ensured the Sussex team was right on the track with a partnership of 41 runs with Greenfield for the 5th wicket. But the game dramatically changed after the wicket of Greenfield.

A stumping after the match!

The home team lost wickets of their captain Peter Moores and Paul Jarvis and were left seven wickets down for 127. Newell made 35 off 51 balls despite hitting just one four to help Sussex level the score. He was cleaned up by Gloucester skipper Mark Alleyne on the first ball of the final over. Mark Robinson faced Alleyne with Jack Russell standing up to his skipper with one run needed from the last five balls.

The delivery from Alleyne went past Robinson’s reach and was set to be a wide. But at the same time, Russell’s quick glove work ensured he caught Robinson short of the crease. The square-leg umpire declared it out even before the other umpire ruled it as a wide. After a brief discussion, the umpires decided to award the one run came via wide and also consider the stumping made by Russell.

As a result, Sussex ended up with 142/9 and clinched a one-wicket win against the Gloucestershire. Technically, the stumping affected by Russell was recorded only after the completion of the match as Sussex got their winning run through a wide. Rules at that point allowed such things to happen but in the current rules, the ball would have been considered dead once Sussex reached the target with the wide.