KARACHI, Dec 23: Karachi Zebras were undeserving sufferers when they were robbed of a likely shock win over defending champions Sialkot Stallions in the third ABN-AMRO Twenty20 Cup at the National Stadium here on Friday night.

The Zebras, chasing 107, had reached 69 for five in 13.5 overs when two of the six floodlight towers suddenly stopped functioning, at a time when an exciting finish was on the cards in the Group ‘B’ fixture.

Umpires Siddique Khan and Ahmed Shahab, without waiting for the lights to be restored, pulled out the stumps when the cut-off time of 1135pm arrived 21 minutes after the game was abruptly halted.

What followed next was nothing but farce. Saadat Ali, the match referee, had no idea how to settle the dispute when the umpires referred the matter to him.

Saadat, who had played eight One-day Internationals for Pakistan in 1984, was completely at a loss since he didn’t know how to apply the Duckworth/Lewis method to decide the result!Perplexed and confused, Saadat, who has been officiating as match referee since 1998-99 in domestic competitions, sought help of Khateeb Rizwan, the referee in the Interloop Wolves Faisalabad-Lahore Eagles game earlier in the evening.

Rizwan refused to become a party when Saadat approached to help him out in the calculations. But when a senior Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) official rang up from Lahore it was then only Rizwan conditionally intervened just to do the calculations after making clear that the decision-making process was Saadat’s prerogative and not his.

And since Duckworth/Lewis calculations are made on a scientific calculator, none was provided to either of the referees in the first instance. Somehow one device meeting the desired specifications was finally made available after a short while.

Ultimately, Saadat declared the Stallions winners by two runs – a verdict that overwhelmingly displeased the Zebras who were at the brink of reaching the semi-finals if they had won. Their captain Hasan Raza, the Pakistan Test batsman, refused to attend the post-match presentation while the Zebras team officials protested their resentment with the PCB.

Perhaps, Saadat Ali should have done what Taslim Arif did earlier this year by taking a lenient stance by allowing the match to continue after the lights had been restored.

Taslim, the former Test wicket-keeper, didn’t go for the dreaded D/L method when the second Twenty20 Cup final between Sialkot Stallions and Interloop Wolves Faisalabad was marred by a ridiculous 94-minute stoppage in play because of crowd trouble.