Terryn Fray called the officiating into question after Bailey’s Bay suffered a contentious two-run defeat against Southampton Rangers in an ill-tempered top-of-the-table clash in the One Premier Division at Southampton Oval yesterday.

With perfect records on the line for both teams, Bay managed to restrict Rangers to a below-par 105 before finding themselves on the verge of victory despite their own struggles with the bat.

However, with just three-runs needed from 10.5 overs and one wicket remaining, Nairobi Carmichael was adjudged to have been run out, sparking over-zealous celebrations from the Rangers players and heated remonstrations from the Bay bench.

It was just one of a number of decisions throughout the Bay innings, including another contentious and unsporting “Mankad” run out of Zeko Burgess and dispute between the match scorers and the officials regarding Malachi Jones bowling more than his ten allotted overs, that left Fray angered.

“It is out of our hands because the umpires are the ones who make the decisions and unfortunately at our level we have to live with it,” said the Bay captain, whose team beat Cleveland County by six wickets on Saturday. “You don’t want to reflect on mistakes but it’s sad.

“It’s really difficult because everything rests on the umpires decision and you hope the integrity of the game is upheld but sometimes it isn’t and you are left questioning everything.

“Things need to change because the game in this country cannot continue to go the way it is. It ruined a good game today and it dampens the sport and our culture.

“Today we saw the players dictating the match and that just isn’t how it should be. It is up to the cricket board and so we can only hope that they can improve the game for everyone, because it makes players not want to play any more.

“We have to respect the officials but sometimes that is hard because that respect doesn’t always go both ways.

“This is a season in which we thought we could really compete and we have, but poor decisions like we saw today could cost us because it could come down to those fine margins.

“It will go down as a loss but we know we can be proud of what we did and this won’t ruin us, we’ll keep moving forward.

“There is a lot of rivalry between the sides and so those tensions are always in the air but you hope cricket is always the winner. However, today that wasn’t the case.”

Having won the toss, Rangers found themselves in trouble almost immediately as openers Shannon Raynor and Najiyah Raynor were dismissed with the score at four for two after 2.5 overs, having both scored a solitary run each.

Tre Manders and captain Dion Stovell helped settle the innings slightly taking the score past the 20 mark before the latter fell to the bowling of Kyle Hodsoll, caught by Rodney Trott, for 13.

Duente Darrell came and went for nought, as Hodsoll completed his hat-trick, with the score at 22 for four, before just four runs later Jaloni Albouy joined him back in the pavilion, having been run out for one, leaving the score at 26 for five after just 9.1 overs.

Jones joined Manders at the crease and steadied the innings, taking the score to 65 after 17.3 overs before the former was bowled by Carmichael for 16. Manders finally fell two overs later, caught off the bowling of Carmichael for 24, as Rangers found themselves on 70 for seven.

Janeiro Tucker joined Ricardo Brangman adding another 28 runs to the Rangers total, before Tucker was caught off the bowling of Burgess for 18, with the score at 98 for eight.

Brangman followed just an over later, bowled by Rodney Trott for 12, without adding to his side’s total.

Charles Trott and Nirobi Mills guided their team over the 100 mark, before Trott finally fell, trapped leg before by Rodney Trott for seven, as Rangers finished on 105 after 31.2 overs.

In reply, Bay got off to a poor start losing opener Coolridge Durham for nought, bowled by Stovell after 1.5 overs with just one the run on the board.

Fray joined Rodney Trott at the crease, taking Bay past the 20 mark before the former was caught and bowled by Tucker for 11.

Sinclair Smith fell just an over later leg before by Stovell for a single run with Derrick Brangman following another over later, also trapped leg before by Tucker, for nought, leaving Bay in trouble at 22 for four.

Stephen Outerbridge came and went for a single run, again trapped leg before by Stovell, leaving the score at 27 for five after 15 overs. Shaquille Outerbridge joined Rodney Trott at the crease and lasted seven overs, scoring 22 runs before being caught off the bowling of Tucker.

With the score at 76 for seven, the first flash point occurred as Tucker ran up to bowl before opportunistically stumping non-striker Zeko Burgess, who had edged out of the crease, in a move reminiscent to the infamous Indian cricketer Vinoo Mankad, who first used the tactic in 1947 against Australia. It was also recently seen in the Indian Premier League as Ravi Ashwin’s Mankad dismissed Jos Buttler.

Despite complaints, the officials called Burgess out for 16 much to Bay’s dismay. Jermaine Usher joined Rodney Trott but was quickly dismissed for nought, caught off the bowling of Stovell, with the score at 81- for eight after 29.4 overs.

Just an over later and with no further score to the their total, Bay’s task was made tougher as opener Rodney Trott finally fell, bowled by Tucker, for 15, having faced 84 balls.

Despite the uphill battle, the final stand partnership of Hodsoll and Carmichael batted manfully, taking Bay to within three runs of victory after 39.5 overs, as tensions increased.

However, they were to be denied a hard-fought success as Carmichael was adjudged to have been run out by a brilliant Nirobi Mills throw, dashing Bay’s hopes of an unlikely victory. Hodsoll finished on 14 not-out as tensions boiled over at the end of play.

“We always like to win no matter how we do it and that’s what we did again,” said Rangers captain Stovell, whose team beat St George’s by ten wickets on Saturday to keep their perfect record intact.

“We’ve seen that sort of run out in the IPL and at the end of the day it’s in the rules, batsmen are trying to steal a run and as I said before we will try and win however we can.

“We don’t normally get in those sort of situations where it gets nervy but we had to keep our cool. It was a good game and we managed to come out on top.”