3's almost pull off sensational run chase

The Village 3's were up against Southgate Adelaide 3's at Northampton Exiles Cricket Club in Winchmore Hill on a warm day.

The Village skipper won the toss and decided to put in the oppo to try and force a result.

Andrew Godfrey (0-49) and Tommy Smith (2-45) started the bowling attack for the Village and managed to keep the opening batsman fairly quiet on a pitch that was not giving any help to the bowlers. Dan Penny (0-51) and Chalky Cara (0-44) replaced the youngsters and also managed to keep the scoring rate down and at the drinks break Southgate Adelaide had got to 75-0 off of 24 overs. The Village were finding it tough to create any chances though and with both batsman being in, the runs started to flow a bit quicker. Sanket Shah (0-32) came on for a brief spell but both batsman were in the mood and the run rate was increasing which wasn't helped with a few mistakes in the field. Andrew and Tommy came back on to finish the overs with only Tommy getting any reward with 2 wickets late on, one courtesy of another good catch from James Samarasinghe. The innings finished on 230-2 and the Village had battled hard with little reward for their efforts and the skipper had begun to question his decision to field first.

231 to get seemed a tough run chase with the Village missing some of their usual run scorers but Piers Jenkins (81) and George Downes (0) set about the task of getting the runs. George unfortunately must have remember Piers' dismal from last week as he missed a straight one and the Village were 11-1. Sanket Shah (12) was next in and looked solid before unleashing a few hits to the boundary but he didn't last too long and was subsequently caught behind leaving the Village 41-2 after 12 overs. Shash Seem (40) was next man in and along with Piers started to take the attack to the Southgate bowlers. Both were managing to find the boundaries and with them at the crease the chase looked back on. The score had past 100 when Shash was out looking for one big shot to many and was bowled. James Thompson (51) joined Piers at the crease with the Village needing a further 130 runs from 18 overs at a touch over 7 an over. James looked solid and got into his stride fairly quickly to find the boundaries and reduce the total. Piers at the other end had passed his 50 and with both batsman running hard the pressure was beginning to move to the fielding side. The 100 partnership came up at the end of the 39 over and with 4 overs left with only 30 needed, the impossible had suddenly looked possible. Piers was out looking to charge the bowler and was stumped leaving the Village 207-4 in the 41st over. Dan Penny (16*) joined James at the crease and with his first ball managed to hit a boundary. The next over plundered 10 runs, with James going passed 50 and with one over left the Village only needed 7 to win. James was then caught at point trying to cut one to the boundary which meant Chalky Cara (1*) had to try and finish the game. 5 were needed with 3 to go but Chalky could only manage 1 from 2 balls to get Dan on strike meaning the Village needed 4 of the last ball to win. Dan tried his best to smash the ball but could only pick up 2 runs and the Village had finished agonisingly 2 runs short of what would have been an impressive victory, with a draw the final outcome.

A really unlucky result in the end to only draw and on another day we could have won, but the boys had put in a super effort to even get close to the target. Special mention to Tommy who was the only one to take any wickets, although all the bowlers deserve credit for the way they bowled on a road of a pitch. Piers Jenkins and James Thompson also deserve a mention for a hundred partnership and both passing 50 and also Shash Seem for almost getting the Village over the line.