On a hot and humid day at Chesham CC Berkshire men took on Buckinghamshire CC in two T20 games. These games carried extra significance due to the fact we had lost all 4 points against Wales in the last round due to playing an unregistered player. From Berkshire’s point of view that was now forgotten and the boys understood that to qualify we wanted to win our last four games so we treated these games as cup finals.
In the first game we were sent into bat on what looked like a green wicket but actually played really well. Once again we got off to a great start with Connell and Lewis dispatching the Bucks bowlers to different parts of the ground. The top 4 all got starts and unfortunately did not kick on but Dunnett batting at 5 provided the glue to the innings and his 40 not out off 26 balls allowed Berkshire to get to 171 runs in their allotted 20 overs. It felt like we were 15 runs shy of an excellent target. The Bucks openers started fast but lost young Billy Dodds in the second over to an incredible piece of fielding by Samm Daniel as he was run out. This brought Ryan Friend to the crease and along with his partner Raykar they accelerated to a 100 inside 10 overs. It looked like Bucks were going to walk home but Berkshire men had other ideas and a piece of individual magic by Jonny Connell on the long on boundary where he ran 20 metres before taking a catch above his head to remove Friend off Daniel’s bowling changed the match. From there Captain Dan Lincoln and his men strangled the life out of the run chase and with some excellent death bowling by the ever green Andy Rishton Berkshire finished up winners by 6 runs. Rishton finished with brilliant figures of 1 for 24 off 4 overs and the spinners, Akthar,Campion and Daniel all picked up 2 wickets apiece. It was a brilliant fight back win by the Berkshire boys.
Scorecard & Highlights – CLICK HERE
Onto the second game and Dan Lincoln won the toss and Berkshire decided to bat first. This time it wasnt so easy going as some brilliant Bucks fielding and bowling reduced Berkshire to 113 for 8 in the 15 th over. Rhys Lewis had been good again up top with 30 off 14 balls but our middle order fell away. It was left to Josh Lincoln and Adam Searle to rescue the situation and they both batted brilliantly to get Berkshire up to a total of 162. Josh was last man out for 48 off 37 balls and Searle finished 21 not out off 13 balls.
Now it was over to the bowlers to defend that total and this time round they got on top of the Bucks batters early on and reduced them to 68 for 5 in the 12th over. Bucks never really recovered and were eventually bowled out for 126. Wickets were shared around again with Rishton,Searle and Dunnett taking 2 and Samm Daniel with 3 for 25 runs as he mopped up the tail. The fielding and catching in particular was quite impressive from the Stags and once again their never say die attitude got them out of a few sticky situations.
Scorecard & Highlights – CLICK HERE
With results going our way we now face Bedfordshire at Wargrave on Sunday and if we can win both those games we can finish top of the group which would be quite incredible considering our 4 point loss. It will be great to see all of you come to support the boys this coming Sunday.
