B&LCC 4th XI:
137 / 8 off 39.1 overs
Daniel Crawshaw 25, Chandra Rao 20, Takudzwa Chibuda 18, Avitej Singh 15, Gauranga Rao 11
Its 10pm, Saturday and I hope there will be a little leeway with the lack of in-depth reporting for the 4ths' first win of the season. I didn't even play and I am exhausted from watching a game that went down to the last over!!! I would rather sit down in the morning and write a full report, but you see, my obsession with cricket takes me to Bedford tomorrow with the county under 14's so I need to leave very early in the morning.

So to our match, we lost the toss, and they went in to bat, Calvin and Avi opened the bowling for us, Avi making his debut in adult cricket and after 10 overs, Avi had struck twice and Calvin the once, leaving Fownhope 39 for 3, pretty decent start. For the remaining 30 overs, we kept it tight and kept picking up wickets. Dave with 2 in an excellent 4 over spell, Gauranga bowled 8 overs going for only 18 his last three all maidens. His dad, Chandra, having asked me to bowl last week, and I ignored him, showed me why he should have bowled last week, taking 2 wickets in his short spell, Freddie bowling well as usual, Oscar picking up a wicket off his 5 tidy overs and it was left to Avi to claim his third and their last wicket, all out for 133.

Now I can't remember what we scored last week, but I am pretty sure this was going to have to be our highest score of the season to win. Avi and Daniel opened up and put on 48 for the first wicket and we were looking good, Daniel taking every opportunity to punish the poor ball, scoring a well made 25. Avi, took a nasty one to the inside of his pad by his knee and had to retire hurt, having made 15. Father and Son then took over, and were looking good with some good running between the wickets, Chandra, hitting everything he could to leg, Gauranga fell for 11, Chandra for an entertaining 20.

Then we had a bit of a wobble, losing 3 quick wickets leaving us in a little bit of trouble. Daiyle made a needed 10 but, having lost Avi to injury it came down to our last wicket partnership of Freddie and Calvin. Tense to say the least, possibly needed around 15 to win. Freddie was brilliant in defence, scoring a defiant 2, and running well with Calvin who at the other end was seemingly swinging at everything coming his way. It could have been all over at any moment, but Calvin kept on finding the boundary and in the last over we needed maybe 2 to win. First ball was a no ball (yes we had tied the match regardless) and then on the free hit to follow Calvin smacked it for 4!!! Jubilant scenes at the end, and our first win of the season.

Well done everyone, what a win.

Till next week,

Phil