The match itself had a thrilling finish. New Zealand, nine wickets down and with No.11 Mark Gillespie on strike, required two from the final ball to beat England in the fourth ODI at the Oval in June 2008.
Luke Wright fired in the delivery, and with Gillespie driving the ball to a fielder in the ring on the off-side, the run out was on. But with no one able to gather the throw at the non-striker’s end, Gillespie and Kyle Mills ran two to prompt exuberant celebrations on the New Zealand balcony.
Nonetheless, what preceded the finale was what has made this match an infamous one. With 26 required from 39 balls, New Zealand’s Grant Elliott tried to squeeze in a quick single but was taken down as the bowler, Ryan Sidebottom, attempting to gather the ball for a run-out opportunity, collided with him.
A fair way out of his ground, Elliott was run out as Ian Bell picked up and launched a throw at the non-striker’s end, with Kevin Pietersen on hand to take off the bails.
The spotlight then turned on England captain Paul Collingwood and whether he would withdraw England’s appeal, with Elliott clearly hurting from the collision. Umpire Mark Benson approached Collingwood and asked if he wished to uphold the appeal, and the fielding skipper opted to send Elliott on his way.
Elliott trudged off the field, shaking his head, and boos rung around the Oval too. New Zealand, reduced to 220-8, would have the last laugh, however, securing a last-gasp win.
Afterwards, Collingwood apologised for his decision as a discussion over the Spirit of Cricket broke out. “It was in the heat of the moment,” he was quoted as saying by the Guardian after the match.
“I have never been in that situation before as a captain. It is a difficult decision to make. In hindsight, I wish I had called him back. You come off the pitch and wonder if you should have done things differently. I hold my hands up and say I probably made the wrong decision, and that is something that I will have to live with. I apologise to the New Zealand lads.”
For Collingwood, the difficulties didn’t stop with that situation. He was punished for England’s slow over-rate too, with the ICC handing him a four-match ban.
A year later, there proved to be an odd role-reversal, with Collingwood involved in a bizarre run-out against New Zealand in the Champions Trophy. With England 27-3 in their group stage clash against the Black Caps in Johannesburg, Collingwood wandered out of his crease after swaying from the final ball of Mills’ sixth over, with wicketkeeper Brendon McCullum then managing to hit the stumps with an underarm throw.
But New Zealand captain Daniel Vettori, who had been in charge during that Oval ODI, decided to withdraw the appeal and shook hands with Collingwood, who hadn’t appeared to be taking a run but had rather assumed it to be the end of the over.
Just like the Oval ODI, it was New Zealand who came out on top in the match, winning by four wickets – Elliott was the Player of the Match after taking 4-31 with the ball.
