Richmond Cricket Club v Melbourne Cricket Club semi-final at Punt Road March 1976
There have been few more intense, dramatic, or competitive Melbourne club cricket finals than the District (now Premier) Cricket Semi-Final played between Richmond and Melbourne at the Punt Road Oval in 1976.
Richmond had finished the 1975-76 season well clear on top of the Ladder and had only to avoid defeat to progress to the Grand Final.
A draw - or a tie - was sufficient.
But Melbourne had no choice, it HAD to win!
The four innings’ Semi-Final, played over three days, came down to the last ball of the match - in near darkness at the Punt Road Oval - with Richmond needing only a single to tie the game and to progress to the Grand Final.
At 6:50pm on the third day, Richmond’s (and Australian Test team) number 11, Jim Higgs, was run out by centimetres - scampering for the equalising run which would have seen his team through.
