Luck just isn't going Bayleys Central Indians' way after they fell to a "controversial" defeat in the BOPCA Baywide premier competition, according to co-captain Andrew Gibbs.
The Rotorua side, who batted second, lost by 12 runs against New World Te Puke at Smallbone Park on Saturday - their sixth loss in the Baywide Cup leaving them rooted to the bottom of the table.
Central Indians put themselves in a strong position going into the second innings after bowling Te Puke out for 208 with the visitor's Christian MacDonald top scoring with 89 runs and Gibbs impressing with the ball for 3/35.
But a quick fire round of "controversial" wickets which saw Central Indians lose five batsmen for five runs and a final run out with three overs left sent the home side to a "crushing" defeat.
Gibbs said he was very "unhappy" with the loss and questioned why only one official umpire- experienced Colin Elstob, was sent from the Bay of Plenty Cricket Association, when usually two were used to oversee a premier match.
"We feel very gutted about a lot of the decisions," said Gibbs. "I felt Colin did an excellent job but it could never be as accurate as having two umpires there.
"There were five lbw decisions made and I would say four of them were questionable. Also when the last wicket was given there was disbelief amongst our players."
Bay of Plenty Cricket Association umpires manager Kevin Earl said fielding only one umpire was unfortunately an "unavoidable situation".
"It is a situation that we couldn't avoid," he said. "We spoke to Colin ahead of the game and he was happy to umpire by himself and this is something that sometimes happens.
"It of course is not an ideal situation but in this case there was nothing we could do at such short notice."
Moving forward from the result, Gibbs said the side remained positive ahead of next weekend's away fixture against Element IMF Cadets and highlighted batsmen Rohan Gosai (49) and Stephen Nichols (48) performances.
"I was really happy with our display," he said. "For us we will take it as a winning result."
"We are still feeling positive and with a result like this you just have to put it behind you. Cricket can be a funny game sometimes."
Meanwhile, Cooney Lees Morgan Tauranga Boys College, scored a big victory over Baywide Cup competition leaders Element IMF Cadets, at Blake Park in Mount Maunganui on Saturday.
This enabled Carrus Mount Maunganui to leapfrog Cadets back to the top of the table after they survived some determined bowling pressure from Evers Realty Greerton.
BOPCA Baywide premier competition results
Baywide Cup:
New World Te Puke 203 (Christian MacDonald 82, Gareth Wallace 26; Andrew Gibbs 3/35, Himesh Gosai 2/21, Dave Lewy 2/38) defeated Bayleys Central Indians 191 (Rohan Gosai 49, S Nichols 48, Ben Sandford 39; Brody Gilroy 6/67).
Element IMF Cadets 94 (Ben Christensen 31; Rhys Mischewski 5/15, Sean Wakelin 4/20) lost to Cooney Lees Morgan Tauranga Boys College 95/3 (Mikaere Leef 25no, Sean Wakelin 23no, Marcel Collett 21).
Eves Realty Greerton 135 (Cam Neal 57; Nick Smith 4/16, Dan Hill 2/14, Kyle Dovey 2/23) lost to Carrus Mount Maunganui 136/6 (N Smith 33no, Matt Golding 29; Lee Watkins 3/38).
Points table (provisional): Carrus Mount Maunganui 122, Element IMF Cadets 118, Cooney Lees Morgan Tauranga Boys College 102, New World Te Puke 90, Eves Realty Greerton 82, Bayleys Central Indians 17.