Stoke 2s win a thriller at Old Pauline

This is the third time these two sides have played each other recently and the third thrilling finish. This time last year, Falcon lead us to a 2 wicket win with an unbeaten 83. Last August Old Paulines sneaked home by 1 wicket with 3 balls to spare. Today, Stoke scraped the tightest of wins by just a single wicket, again with 3 balls to spare.

Having won the toss and fielded Po and Big Bird took an early wicket each with a bowled and a catch by Crispy before Benjamin and Grant set about laying a platform for the home side. Dom bowled a very tight spell, but Johnny put us in control when he was introduced into the attack with two wickets in his first over, the 2nd a good catch at the wicket by Falcon. Nathwani joined Grant and the pair pushed the score past 100 at just 3 per over. Jonny bowled Grant trying to up the scoring rate and shortly afterwards Matt got an lbw. I think Sen, (the batter), knew as he was walking before the finger was raised.

From 127-6 Nathwani and Malkan brought the hosts back into the game with a brisk partnership of 45 in 5 overs. Johnny picked up his 4th wicket when Nathwani drilled the ball stright at Po at mid off. Nathwani had made an aggressive and important 70. Pagie picked up a wicket, but Malkan continued his hitting to take Old Paulines to 196-8 from 55 overs. Johnny was the pick of the Stoke bowlers with 4-58 in a 17 over spell. Having got through our overs in just 2 hours and 40 minutes, we would have plenty of time to chase the runs down.

Teas were an improvement on last year here, (when the urn didn’t seem to work), but still on the sparse side for 22 hungry players, although I must admit to being something of a fan of the lemon cake you had on offer.

Falcon and Ali Mac started our innings with a blaze of boundaries, (8 in the first 9 overs), and were threatening to make 196 look decidedly sub-par. The hosts introduced 2 left armers in Malkan and Methuen who both bowled good line & length and slowed the scoring rate. Significantly neither had much of a run up and so got through the overs very quickly too. Methuen got the breakthrough when Falcon drove a catch to mid off. Ali Mac and Tufty took us to 100-1, (giving us no clue as to the drama which was to unfold), before both fell in consecutive overs.

Johnny hit 5 4s and a 6 in his quick innings of 34, before uncharactaristically missing an attempted slug to mid wicket. With time on our side, Pagie and Peter brought some calm to the innings, but they found scoring tough due to the good bowling on show. Methuen left his mark on the game when he claimed the wickets of Pagie, Crispy and Peter in quick succession to leave us still 23 short with only 3 wickets to spare. Methuen had a deserved 5 wicket haul.

Promoted to number 9, Po went in to support Matt, with the intention of giving the skipper as much strike as possible, Matt being the player capable of winning the game for us from here. Unfortunately, having hit two boundaries, he rifled one back at Methuen who clung on to a superb caught and bowled. He would finish with 6-45. 15 year old Dom joined Po at the crease and the pair managed to scramble 7 runs before the last over was called at 7.19 – the 114th of the match, a credit to both sides. As Andy Lee might say – squeaky bum time.

We needed 3 to win in the last over with 2 wickets to spare. First ball, Dom went for glory only to see his middle stump knocked back. 3 from 5 balls needed with just 1 wicket now. Big Bird struck his first, (and only), ball cleanly to mid on and called Po through for a run. Mid on shied at the stumps and missed by – well I don’t know as I was running to the other end, but judging by the fielders’ reactions, it must have been inches. Big Bird would not have been in the frame. 2 needed from 4 balls. Po struck the next ball between the bowler and mid off and completed the 2 runs for the slimmest of victories.

Throughout the match both teams played in fantastic spirit and no spectator would have known that 1 team were top of the league and the other bottom. I have no doubt that OPCC will be off the bottom very soon if they continue to play in this vein. Stoke 2s have gone from out biggest win in the Championship last week, to our tightest and welcome Cranleigh next week back at home, having now a run of 5 wins in a row. We won’t be underestimating them.

Scorecard Link : http://sdacc.play-cricket.com/scoreboard/scorecard.asp?id=10912400