WARWICKSHIRE Bears will not appeal against their controversial 4-3 bowl-out defeat by Surrey Lions in the quarter-finals of the Twenty20 Cup at the Oval on Monday night after accepting that confusion over how many runs were needed off the last ball was an honest mistake by the umpires.

Plenty of uncertainty as to what had happened remained yesterday, even if natural justice prevailed in Surrey securing victory. “We’re disappointed and very sad to go out like that,” Keith Cook, the Warwickshire cricket operations manager, said. “We’ve asked the ECB in appropriate fashion and they have given the appropriate answer.”

Surrey had set Warwickshire 150 to win, but after rain the target was revised to 118 off 15 overs. With Warwickshire needing 14 off the last over, the confusion started for scorers, umpires, players and 8,590 spectators. Warwickshire scored 11 off the first five balls from Azhar Mahmood. There was then a six-minute pause while the umpires tried to divine whether two or three were needed to win.

The umpires told the players that three were needed. For some reason they did not believe that there could be a tie if only two were scored, but the Duckworth/Lewis method provides for a tie whenever applied. Had the match been uninterrupted and the scores finished level, the result would have been decided by fewer wickets lost — in this instance, both teams had lost eight and countback to ten-over scores would have been the next tie-break option.

What appears not to have been acknowledged is that before the last over, the scoreboard changed the D/L target to 117, which meant that, according to the scoreboard, if not fact, Warwickshire won by scoring two. “I was not aware of that,” Cook said. “The D/L score should be the amount to tie plus one (ie, 118). We’ve got a C & G semi-final to worry about now.”

An ECB statement read: “The ECB and the umpires concerned (Allan Jones and David Constant) apologise to all for the confusion at the end of yesterday’s Twenty20 Cup quarter-final between Surrey and Warwickshire.

“In a pressurised situation the umpires made a mistake in informing the players that if Warwickshire scored one run less than the Duckworth/Lewis target, Surrey would win. The Duckworth/Lewis regulations clearly state that when a Duckworth/Lewis target has been set, a side batting second scoring one less than the target score results in a tie.

“As soon as the problem was established the umpires consulted with the ECB as to whether to apply the correct regulation and order a ‘bowl-out’ or to adhere to the faulty advice that had been given to the players. It was concluded that the correct regulation should be applied and that a ‘bowl-out’ should take place.”

Alan Fordham, the ECB cricket operations manager, had to make the decision amid a series of frantic calls on the way back from the quarter- final he attended in Northampton, ordering Surrey to take part in the bowl-out. “The real controversy would have come if we’d lost the bowl-out,” a Surrey spokesman said.

HOW IT UNFOLDED

Nick Knight, Warwickshire captain, wins toss and chooses to bowl first

Dougie Brown: misses off stump; Ian Salisbury: leg break misses off stump; Brown: leg-side wide; Salisbury: leg break misses off stump.

Heath Streak: away-swinger misses off stump; Jimmy Ormond: away-swinger misses off stump; Streak: hits middle and leg (1-0); Ormond: wide down leg.

Neil Carter: beamer wide of off; Nayan Doshi: full ball a yard outside off; Carter: slanted across stumps; Doshi: perfect left–arm orthodox, pitches middle but misses off.

Alex Loudon: bounces over stumps; Tim Murtagh: bounces over off stump; Loudon: misses by miles; Murtagh hits middle (1-1).

Dewald Pretorius: hits with yorker (2-1); Azhar Mahmood: hits with full ball (2-2); Pretorius: misses down leg; Azhar: leg cutter misses off stump.

SUDDEN DEATH

Pretorius: hits with full, straight ball (3-2); Azhar: hits with ball that seams back to hit off (3-3); Streak: misses off with away-swinger; Murtagh hits with full ball to give Surrey 4-3 win.