Thriller at The Meadow

For the second consecutive Sunday, Northchurch found themselves facing the pyjama'd Radlett in the Sunday T20 cup, this time at the Meadow. Ollie Johnson won the toss and threw his men into bat again. Hobley and Vila got off to a watchful start against the swinging ball, until Hobley was bounced out by the imposing 6"5' West Indian opener (and Dwayne Bravo's cousin), Glen Boyce, who was fired up. Vila, in the next over, showed the old pro how to play the short and nasty, by hooking a six up the hill.

Louis played shots early on and looked in great touch until he was unfortunately run out for the second time in the weekend. In making a legitimate attempt to the field the ball, the bowler had become an obstacle, and Louis lost valuable time circumnavigating his man. Vila was out in the same over, mishitting to mid on.

No further wickets fell as Garraway and Patel (pictured celebrating Romit's early wicket) amassed one of the great partnerships at the Meadow. Romit rotated the strike brilliantly in a run-a-ball 30, to give Garraway fifty balls to play with. In those fifty balls, Tom hit 10 fours and four sixes to reach 88 and leave Radlett needing a shade under nine an over to win.

Northchurch's bowlers got off to a fine start, with DJ removing the dangerous Chris Gallagher, Romit trapping last week's half centurion Buddhika, and OJ knocking over the dashing Faisal. Mounting scoreboard pressure meant that Radlett needed to take risk each over and wickets fell as a result. With eight overs to go, Radlett still needed the thick end of 100 and Northchurch felt comfortable, but Jasdeep Singh had quietly got himself in and embarked on an innings to match Garraway's.

A couple of big overs helped Radlett get back in contention, and Singh found able support from Kayani to get the equation to 27 needed from the last 18 balls, surely making the visitors favourites. Bullet Johnson and Vila would need all their experience.

A tight leg stump line to an onside field made it tough for Radlett, and Vila picked up two victims who tried to hit over the big boundary. With ten needed off the last over, it was tense finish, but Singh could not clear the ropes and handed too much strike to a brand new batsman. The six needed from the last ball was too much and Church closed out the game with plenty of lessons learned about T20.

Two excellent games against Radlett in two weeks have been a great advert for this competition. Let's hope the standard remains high as we move on to Berko and Chorleywood.