Final-ball drama settles Thorpe Arnold contest

With the sun beating down on it was more like Miami than Melton Mowbray this Saturday as Thorpe Arnold took on Electricty Sports.

Captain Richard Randall won the toss and Thorpe were bowling.

After two maiden overs from Hickman, Pepperdine struck with a swinging yorker.

Electricty Sports then began to to re-build with some solid boundary hitting and the scoreboard was ticking in the wrong direction for Thorpe.

Thorpe then turned to our other swing bowler extraordinaire and Chris Waldron swang into action with him dismissing the number three bat after an athletic grab from Lewis Perry, 33-2.

The famous phrase one brings two then happened after a masterful grab from Jordan Hirst after another swinging delivery from Pepperdine, 39-3.

Not wanting to be outdone by his swing bowling counter part, Waldron dismissed another batsman after a well taken catch from wicket keeper Adam Clarke, 55-4.

Then started the Electricty Sports come back with great batting and a combination of power hitting boundaries and well taken ones and twos, the scoreboard ticked over to three digits.

Then Thorpe made the decision to turn to the spin bowling of Niv Bhojwani.

A classic spinner delivery took care of the number five bat after another fine grab the wicket keeper Clarke, his second of the day, 106-5.

A. Smith then joined P. Dave in the middle and the scoreboard started to roll on again in the wrong direction with some great batting, the 150 run mark coming up.

Soon after Bhojwani struck for the second time and bowled P. Dave after a fantastic 40 runs, 159-6.

Hickman then return for his third spell and his pace was too much to handle for A. Smith and he was gone for 27, 161-7.

Thorpe then turned to the Jordan Hirst who took a wicket after a instinctive grab from Hickman, 166-8.

Thorpe were really rolling now and the always loud Thorpe field was really chirping and Hickman struck again after taking a page out of the Pepperdine playbook and took another wicket with an LBW dismissal, 170-9.

The Electricty Sports tail did waggle with some late runs after some nice played boundary balls and the winning target of 189 was set.

With sun beating down and the temperatures really getting hot the opening pair of Read and Clarke opened up.

Both of them dug in and batted well hit some impressive boundary shots and great singles and two’s and the 50 came up for no lose.

Then Read was caught and the break through was made and it was 53-1 for one.

Pollard came in and him and Clarke continued to rotate strike and kept the score board going in the right direction for Thorpe.

Pollard went after batting in a good partnership with Clarke and Thorpe were 78-2.

Then came in J. Mistry and him and Clarke really dug in and batted with confidence and ran well for a lot singles and manipulated the field forcing Electricty Sports Captain to move the field around constantly.

The total of 189 was slowing been chipped away at, with singles and well ran twos the order of the day.

Adam Clarke then worked his way to a well deserved 50.

The sun was really beating down on the players now, with boundaries very hard to come by.

Clarke was gone after a nice delivery took out his off stump.

A fantastic knock of 56, he left the field to loud and well deserved applause, 145-3.

Hickman then came in with a job to do and along with Mistry carried on the hard running.

The score was being ran down in the surgery manner, but unfortunately Hickman was ran out trying to push for more runs and Waldron came the crease as Thorpe ended the 44th over on a score 175-4.

So with the last over upon us Thorpe needed 14 runs to win, after a well played twos, Waldron smashed a massive six to get Thorpe to 186 just three runs away with two balls left.

Then after a Waldron single, Thorpe were on 187, so on the last ball it’s one to draw and two to win.

The bowler made a fantastic delivery and Waldron was ran out trying to get a run.

Thorpe finished on 187, a fantastic thrilling game of cricket for all to watch.

Just short of the total but lots of positives to take from the game and some points as well.

J. Mistry finished on 46 not out in almost match winning performance.

A special mention to A. Clarke who made two grabs as wicket keeper and made a 50 with the bat.

Also a good team bowling performance as nearly all bowers contributed with a wicket.

Credit to Electricty Sports who batted, bowled and fielded incredibly well.

Thorpe travel to Loughborough next Saturday and will try to get back to winning ways.