Telling Tails: Ravens vs Sutton Benger
Well that was absolutely thrilling, a theme which Malcolm clearly brought with him from the airplane... couldn't imagine trying to land a plane and the landing gear not operating as planned and then coming to play a game of cricket immediately after. 50p for lateness though.
Who wants to hear about a last ball decider? Yeah, then read on...
Sutton Benger paid us a visit and very glad they came down, a brilliant social side who arrived with the kind of spirits and smiles that we love to see at Ramsbury CC. And the weather to match... accompanied by a lovely evening breeze. Good grief I love these summer months.
A perfect evening for a T20 game and a strong team out for Ramsbury. After winning the toss and electing to bat, we started well. Bart opening things up on his debut for Ravens setting a positive tone, one Sean had good intention to continue had he not been unfortunately run out (50p Jamie). Fortunately this incident left our vice captain with a point to prove.
As we pushed down through the order, we chipped away at the runs and applied the pressure. Lee's retirement 28* came at the right moment for us as he steadied the ship. Harry hit a quick 22, John Joel smashed 19 off a handful of balls and I came home 16* and was well supported by Warwick and Rich who ran hard to squeeze every single run possible at the death... they all count.
We finished at the half way stage at 154/8. Game on.
Quick change over and onto the second half. Jamie opened things up, followed by Harry. Both pinning their openers down. They were more glad to see me at the popping crease as they finally found the boundary. As we cycled through the overs, their opening set of batters played well with the first 3 all retiring.
Warwick looked dangerous once more, regularly beating the bat, Rich had a cracking first over along with Laurence and Lee and John made the vital breakthrough to take our first wicket in... wait for it... the 16th over! A very patient wait..in the process of getting there the ball hit my arm at gulley... whilst I thought it had gone the other way, a fortunate dot ball, but a drop nonetheless and Sean realised that the reason we often drop him is it's frequently spinning violently in the air as a caught bowled opportunity went begging.
With the next batsman also retiring we faced the final few overs with increasing tension. Rich tempted the batsman to go long, sending the ball down the throat of Jamie who took a strong catch to send the visitors 2 down with 3 overs to go.
Next in the bowling queue, Laurence. Sutton Benger require 18 to draw, 19 to win. One, two, dot, YES LAURENCE! One, one, go on lad! Six... so close, but an incredible over for that stage of the game (and fair play to the batsman for striking under the pressure that Sir Mitchell had applied).
Queue Harry. They needed just 8 to win, so we flooded the leg side to cover everything we could... bodies, limbs, minds all on the line. Dot ball, great start. Yes Harry. Single, yes mate, another dot, come on now! And boom, wicket. A truly remarkable stumping from Bart that put all the pressure on the visitors. New batsman, 2 runs, well that's okay, single to finish. We've made it, it's a final over decider!
The VC steps up. Despite a good opening couple of overs, Jamie still had a point to prove. Dot. Yes mate. Wide (not sure how) visitors now 151. 3 to win, 5 balls left. Please Jamie, join those dots, in the field, stop and chase it all down, let's somehow do this... dot, yes, dot, YES! DOT! COME ON YES! 2 balls, 2 to tie, 3 to win.
Balls comes down, batsman swings, hits and it goes, and goes and goes, straight upwards and lands in the hands of Rich, who returned the favour to Jamie for his earlier take. Hooray!
Final ball, new batsman at the crease and the visitors need 3 to win. Ball comes down, batsman connects, but we're there, blocked and held, they take a single and we take a win by just 2 runs. What a game!
What incredible fielding, what great commitment and what great running to snatch every run we could when we could.
Thanks to Colin for the preparation of the wicket, Dave for his spot on and honest umpiring, to Sean for grabbing the beers and to everyone who came down to support and cheers us on. And to Sutton Benger for a cracking game that will be remembered for some time.
That was a privilege to be a part of.
We go again, Sunday against Kennet Valley at home.
Get those names down if you haven't already.
Go well. Cheers. 🏏
