At Milton. Milton won the toss and elected to field. Phoenix won by 5 runs
A step into the unknown was clearly etching on the faces of several Phoenix faces as one by one we all arrived at the ground,the toss was made and Phoenix were put into bat.The skipper delivered a calming team talk and then the show was on the road!
The openers then purposefully strode to the crease I’m sure with Gareth’s instructions whistling in their ears “a run a ball a run a ball that’s what we need”. Dave took strike asking for 2 legs ,I was umpiring and was thinking more about a lid for Dave after seeing the gargantuan run up.The first ball was bowled and we were off the mark with a flash outside off stump a great edge by Dave a boundary was signalled,the rest of the over like a chess match sussing each other out. Respect was the order for the next couple of overs but then I could imagine the skippers run a ball being echoed above the humdrum noise from the A14 as Dave certainly was trying to do this even with two suicidal runs attempts,the calmer Jeff sending him back on both occasions.
The overs were moving on and we were in utopia surely not 40 odd without a loss of any wickets,the openers continued battling on bravely Dave could of still been asleep now had he not managed to duck out of the way of a very fast bouncer! Jeff finally succumbed to a good ball and received a heroes welcome back in the hutch,within minutes he dutifully took over the umpire’s role. Aidan looking as calm as ever nonchalantly went about the task of keeping the run rate moving and played some exquisite shots,at this point both men in the crease were facing some fast hostile bowling,our dream was very much now on,(could we really be in with a chance of knocking out the champs)?
Dave finally tried one run too many,but boy did he produce a heroic innings! it was left to the Chairman to do what he has been doing all season and Aidan to see us put at least another 30 runs on at the death,at the interval the changing room was buzzing,we were truly in the game,the skipper embarked on another team talk we marched out onto the field knowing we could defy the odds!!!
Alex West opened the bowling and showed nervy steels for a 15 year old ,adrenaline is a fine thing he looked a tad quicker than usual ,from the other end the cool composed Jeff struggled a bit for line and length,however that doesn’t matter he bowled a typical Stuart Creed like delivery and lo and behold got the same result ,the bat couldn’t believe it ,what a start! Alex kept plugging away at the other end,then in his final over bowled a peach,the bails were spraying in all directions!The wizard that is Nusrat I’m feeling 10 feet tall at the moment Hamid then had their bats in all sorts of trouble another tremendous spell,Matt replaced Alex and the Milton bats decided to target him as the spin king was unplayable at the other end,Matt held his
nerve well,but the game was starting to swing in Miltons favour,what does the skipper do? He turns to the ice man Jon West,of whom delivers 8 amazing balls and sends their skipper back to the pavilion,the game has been turned from a losing position to one we surely can’t lose 21 off the last over, experience is a great thing and Matt got us over the line!!!
The scenes at the end were humbling did we really realise what we had achieved?
Alex certainly did his win bonus was a battered sausage and chips on the way home!!
Stapleford Phoenix
Dave Garman+ run out 25
Jeff Wilson b Conor Devine 17
Aidan Swain not out 39
Damon Rainsford run out 14
Gareth Everson* dnb
George Rolls dnb
Adrian Foster dnb
Jon West dnb
Matt Dobson dnb
Alex West dnb
Nusrat Hamid dnb
Extras (w22, b14, lb 4, nb 2) 42
Total: 137-3 from 15 overs
Conor Devine 4-0-24-1
Chris Day 4-0-43-0
Oliver Spare 3-0-30-0
Cameron Currin 3-0-9-0
Tom Holroyd 1-0-12-0
Milton
Andy Race c Dave Garman b Jeff Wilson 0
Oliver Spare b Alex West 0
Jason Sepetauc not out 65
Prajwal Kumar b Nusrat Namid 35
Chris Day b Jon West 10
Conor Devine not out 9
Extras 13
Total: 132-4 from 15 overs
Alex West 4-0-36-1
Jeff Wilson 2-0-14-1
Nusrat Hamid 4-0-28-1
Matt Dobson 4-0-39-0
Jon West 1-0-3-1