BCEW Primary Club Heindrich Swanepoel Cup
Semi-Finals
Northants v Metro – 23 July!
Download: Scorecard
Sadly, for Metro Devils, a lack of players in the club meant that they were forced to concede their match against Berkshire Stags, with four of their regulars playing for Metro in the Primary Club cup match against Northants. This meant that the Stags took the league title, and a friendly was played at Highgate, including guests from Kent, where two almost full teams enjoyed a very entertaining 25 overs a side match.
Download the Devils-Stags Friendly: Scorecard
Meanwhile, Metro posted just 45 more in 30 overs than they had managed in the T20 cup last Saturday, a score based around Matt Dean’s 159 from 96 balls, as he batted the entire innings before getting run out by Asif Ali on the last ball. It then looked as if the match might have the same result as, after 59 overs, Asif was again at the crease.
This time 22 runs were needed, so the task was a little harder, but surely Metro’s Asif was under huge pressure as this was just his fourth over of the season – the other three having been earlier in the match where he had conceded 25 runs. Credit to Asif as he was thrown the ball ahead of Gareth, who had bowled his five overs for 33 runs.
Mark Turnham was on strike for the first ball, but Northants took a bye to get Asif on strike; the next ball was Asif’s ninth six hit over long on.
Then came the change from the week before as Asif beat the bat to hit the stumps, and suddenly the emotions for the whole team must have changed as now there were 15 needed from just three balls, so the task was harder than the 4-6-4 that Asif had ended the game with and new batter Phil Hancock in his first Northants game of the season was on strike.
Asif had scored 134, several more than the week before; he had nine maximums and six boundaries compared with 7 and 11 the week before.
Phil got the ball backward of square for two, and now care was needed to avoid any extras, and Metro should win. Asif delivered a precious dot ball, and then the second innings finished as the first had with a run out – this time it was the Metro skipper, and this was just Phil’s third ball, and Metro had won by twelve runs.
The Metro team was Devil’s regulars Asif, Rob, Alan, and Prem, with Rory, Matt, Mo, Gareth, Amit, Andy and Nick. The cup final will be a repeat of the 2018 final, with Metro hoping to do better against Sussex than in their league fixtures this season.
Match report by Paul Toplis
Metro Devils – The Development Team
Would you like to play cricket? We are always happy to welcome enthusiastic new players, so if you are interested in playing this season or taking part in training sessions, please contact lucy.simper@metroblindsport.org 07966 260089
Interested in volunteering?
If you want to try volunteering, please contact Lucy at lucy.simper@metroblindsport.org at 07966 260089
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