Penultimate ball drama means Jaffe heroics not in vain!

A trip to Rothamstead Experimental Station was the order of the day to take on Harpenden, a team 10 points above us at the start of the day.

However before that could take place we started production on Carry on Village, a farce where we chase our team mates (and lose them at various junctures) in and around the Finchley/Mill Hill area. At about 12.15 we finally got everyone heading to the ground, but with a good chance of being there a bit late.

Finally we arrived only to disccover we'd managed to lose Mike (playing for the first time) and Ajay (who had somehow not managed to follow the route on his mobile...)

Eventually the skipper won a toss he was hoping to lose, and opted to bat against one of our promotion rivals to maximise bonus point potential. Owing to the previous few early collapses, Lawrence 'poppet' Bird decided to move himself up the order with the objective of batting 40 overs.

He and Matin started off circumspectly against an accurate line and length from both openers, with the pitch providing some uneven bounce, indicated by Matin doing well to fend off his first delivery with his glove after it popped off a length. An out of character slash at a wide one brought 4 runs to the captain before Matin was indecisive about whether to play at one and inside edged onto his stumps (11-1).

Jon then joined his brother at the crease squeezing his first ball through gully for 4 before playing a great drive through point two balls later. However that was his last contribution with the bat after he played inside one that came back and pegged back his off stump. (23-2)

The man in form then arrived at the crease with a rebuilding job on the cards. Lawrence was still on 5* off the first 8 overs and scoring wasn't easy against the impressive opening colts. Once they had both finished their opening spells of 6 overs, scoring became a lot easier, with both Jaffe and the skipper managing to rotate the strike well, although Jaffe was lucky to survive a straightforward catch that was inexpicably spilled.

At drinks we were 85-2, half way in terms of runs with wickets in hand. Both combined watchful defence with intent to put away the bad balls and it wasn't long before Jaffe scored his fifth consecutive league fifty (and beating Marcus to the landmark at the same time). Lawrence wasn't far behind, although being dropped down the legside after getting a fine tickle on one whilst on 49, wasn't the most stylish way to make his second ever league fifty.

The runs contined to be accumulated and by the time Jaffe had been run out for an excellent 80, the score was already past 170 in the 43rd over (176-3) with just under five overs to go. Lawrence hit a couple more boundaries before skying one straight up (188-4).

Superb running between the wickets between Dan Westmore and Jonny Gahan meant that we got up to 211-4 off our 47 overs, a score that the team was pretty happy with overall. However with a short boundary, it was by no means out of the question.

Ajay and Jon opened up, and it was clear from the first over that one of the openers had a penchant for hitting the ball through/over cover in the air, which resulted in some interesting fields being set in the proceeding overs. The other opener however only survived three balls. After fending one away off his gloves and then having his cap knocked off with the next delivery, he was reluctant to get forwards to the third ball and saw off stump pegged back.

The Harpenden skipper came in and looked like a good player straight away, swatting away Jon's attempts at a short ball for six. However Jon was to have the last laugh after a mistimed drive through the covers off a full toss picked out the skipper at extra cover to take a comfortable catch.

Jon picked up another wicket to a good catch from Dan Westmore, before Jon then failed to return the favour, shelling the opening batsman off a firmly struck drive. Fortunately it didn't cost too many more with Ajay enticing him to play the shot again, with the end result a skier which Jon confidently called and took.

Tauheed replaced Ajay at the 'pavilion' end and soon found a good line and length which the batsmen found difficult to get away. We then had our first look at Mike's left arm chinaman where a few very good balls were spoiled by some long hops and full tosses. Chalky then got the shout to replace him and immediately picked up two quick wickets, both pouched by Jonny Gahan. Tauheed was also amongst the wickets at the other end picking up two bowleds with some excellent seem movement.

With Harpenden 8 down and with only 9 overs left, the skipper decided to keep Chalky on for one more over before bringing Jon and Ajay back. It proved to be the correct decision as he produced a mesmerising in-ducker which completely cleaned the batsman up no end. One wicket to take in five overs became one wicket in three overs, with both batsmen happy to dead bat everything.

Chalky once again got the shout and depite both him and Jon bowling good probing lines, the batsmen weren't interested in playing shots.

So with six balls to go we needed one wicket and they needed 13 for maximum batting points:

Ball 1: Rank long hop worked to square leg for 2
Ball 2: Rank long hop hit to the square leg boundary
Ball 3: Defended
Ball 4: Defended
Ball 5: Akin to Graeme Swann vs Chris Rogers, Chalky gets the ball above the eye line of the batsman whose eyes light up at the prospect of a nice juicy full toss. He swings... He misses... only to wear the ball in the stomach... We all go up...

Using ball tracking technology:
- Pitches in line (red light - it didn't pitch)
- Impact in line (red light)
- Wickets (red light - hitting)

The umpire (and opposition skipper) has no choice to put his finger up and we win with one ball to spare.

A great win with the extra 11 points gained taking us above Harpenden and into 6th place, 14 points behind Bentley Heath who we play this week.

If we manage to win the next 2 games, we'll be in a prime position to go up, but we need to maintain the same focus and application to do so.