A quite magnificent game of cricket befitted the SWCA T20 Intermediate Cup Final at Gorseinon CC today (6th)! Just where does one begin..?!
Phil Roche won the toss for our ‘A’ XI and promptly asked Pontarddulais to bat first, backing his young side to successfully chase whatever target was presented to them.
However, it was one of our senior pros who did the early damage with the ball, as Rhys Davies snared the first three wickets to fall..”Bont” 32-3 inside 7 overs! Rhys was very economical too, 3-13 from his 4 overs.
With the stage set for his bowling buddies, wickets fell at regular intervals from this point on..Sam Harris (a miserly 2-14 from his quota), 17 year old George Lloyd (1-6) and 16 year olds Adam Lewis-Williams (2-21) & Michael Jarrett (1-17) shared the other six wickets to fall. Pontarddulais finished with a score of 109-9 from their 20 overs, with opener Alex Thomas (22) top scoring.
Rochey has backed his young players throughout the competition so it was no surprise to see two fifteen year olds march out to open the ‘A’ XI’s innings. Ben Lloyd and ‘keeper Jaden Patel put on 20 in four overs before Jaden (9) was unfortunately run out. A second wicket fell at the same total, so now what? A big ask for MCC’s youngsters? Had Pontarddulais pulled the match back in their favour all of a sudden?
16 year old Sean Davies joined his younger partner. Both he & Ben have been in good nick of late and it was this confidence which allowed them to coolly steady the ship. They added 56 invaluable runs in 9 overs before Ben was dismissed for 32 (2 fours) off 35 balls..MCC 76-3. But, for the second time in the innings, another wicket fell quickly as Sean was bowled for 29 (2 fours)..the scoreboard read 88-4 midway through the 18th over.
Two two new guys were now at the crease with 22 runs still required from a minimum of 15 deliveries, if it was to be Rochey’s Lads parading the Cup on the open-top bus tour of Mumbles..!
So, George (bro of Ben) and Adam (bro of Dan)..what have you got in your lockers? Well, “plenty, and some” was the answer to that question!! These two young lads kept remarkably cool, as they steered their side home off the very last ball of the game when just one run was required to win! George (10no off 5 balls, including 1 great six off his 3rd ball!) and Adam (17no off 18 balls faced, 1 four) had done it!! MCC finished on 110-4, to win by 6 wickets!
And it was Adam who also left Gorseinon with the Man-Of-The-Match award, as adjudged by the umps!
Make no mistake, dear fan of MCC, this was a superb win and thoroughly deserved! However, such an exciting game of cricket could never be possible without the sterling efforts of the opposition. All credit therefore to two evenly matched teams who played the game in excellent spirit throughout.