Final ball thriller at Long Marston
Northchurch were able to hold their nerve on the last ball of the game and defend their total of 190 by a precious, single run at Long Marston in the second round of the National Village Cup on Sunday.
Long Marston’s keeper, Bee, had played a fine innings to get his team needing 18 runs from the last over to record an implausible, but not impossible, victory. A couple of scrambled twos, a lusty blow for six and a dropped catch that fell, agonisingly for Marston, eight inches inside the rope, meant that the home team needed four from the last ball of the game to get them through to the third round.
Northchurch were comforted that it was Lee Johnson, passionate veteran of the club and previous winner of the NVC, with ball in hand. He bustled in, grunted through his release to bowl as full as possible and offer no chance of Bee getting any elevation.
The ball, sweetly hit, skipped across the outfield to cow corner where Jimmy Smart collected cleanly and unleashed. The accuracy of the throw ended any hopes of the scrambling Marston bats coming back for a score-levelling third.
The excitement of that final over was a fitting finale to a match during which the momentum had shifted this way and that. Northchurch had been reduced to 30 for four by Marston’s opening bowlers, who found enough movement and uneven bounce to cause problems. Eyeing up 160 from 40 overs as a sensible ambition, number four bat, Tom Garraway, steadied things along with Calum Lindsay, who was putting to good use all his work over the winter. When the latter inexplicably missed a straight one, a newly streamlined John -no tea for me, thank you- Barry joined Garraway to set about what would be a crucial partnership of 65. Barry rotated well and Garraway grew in confidence, hitting the ball ever harder to recover the run rate.
Soon after Garraway had passed his half century, Barry was stumped, against the run of play for a fine 36, and, after a short cameo from Jim Smart, Romit Patel came to the crease. The pair played out a perfect final eight overs, Patel handing the strike to Garraway, who ramped up the aggression exponentially to reach 98 with six balls to face. Keeping out three well aimed Yorkers, he scampered a single from the fourth ball. Patel lined up to smash the fifth for four through square leg but fortunately offered a leg bye to get Garraway back on strike. A single knocked out to deep point secured a fine, chanceless hundred and seized the tea-time momentum for the visitors.
In response, the Marston openers began aggressively to try to put an early dent in the target of 190. It became clear that pace off the ball would win the game for the fielding side and the introduction of Barry’s off spin offered confirmation, if it was needed. A superb spell of eight overs, which went for just 17 runs, applied pressure on the batsmen to score from the other end and it was Garraway, replacing the precision-guided OJ, who got the breakthrough. Full of confidence after his hundred, he struck twice to remove both openers in quick succession. Flighting the ball up, he then leapt, salmon like, to cling onto a return catch from a bogged down Hammond, before slipping one through the defences of pinch-hitter Shepherd, who could have perished several times during his dashing 46.
With spin at both end and no fielding restrictions, no Marston batsman could get going and Northchurch piled on the pressure to ratchet the required rate up to eight per over. Bee got his score moving, though in unconvincing fashion, by beating orthodox fielders with unorthodox shots. However, after getting away a smart reverse sweep for a boundary, he seemed to grow in confidence and sensed that he might be able to take the game deep to give his side an outside chance, if only he could hang onto a partner. Bee junior found Bexon at extra cover to give Patel a well-deserved wicket, while the returning Johnson knocked over Robinson with the first ball of his spell. Lane joined Bee (80*), now seeing it well and with only one course of action in mind. The thrilling final over played out, much to the detriment of the fingernails of a healthy crowd that had no choice but to remain until the end. Walking off the ground, the players were left to contemplate the value of a single run; all that separated the two teams after 80 overs of lovely cricket.
It is rare that a side can steal back the momentum in a game of cricket. For Northchurch to do it twice, they had to demonstrate the killer instinct and never-say-die attitude that was the source of so much success in 2017. In this mood and now with momentum, they will be a hard team to beat when Preston visit the Meadow in two weeks’ time for the third round tie.