Cross hopes still alive

8/29/2009

Gerrards Cross 223-6 (60 overs)
Thame Town 185-10 (48.4 overs)
Gerrards Cross won by 38 runs

A superb century from Alan Duncan and a devastating spell of fast bowling from Harry Packer kept Gerrards Cross’ title hopes alive with a 38 run win against relegation candidates Thame Town in the HCPCL Division 2 West on Saturday.

However, with victories for both Aston Rowant and Reading, there is no change of the top of table and the title race will go down to the wire.

On winning the toss, Thame asked the Cross to bat. Opening bowler Sam Lachlan (2-67) struck with fourth ball of the match, removing Hywel Peglar for nought. But Hamza Taj (35) and Duncan (112*) restored order with a second wicket stand of 84.

On a pitch which was very difficult to bat on, and would get harder to bat on as the match wore on, the Cross reached lunch in a relatively strong position of 107-2 after 33 overs.

Duncan continued his excellent innings after the break and received useful support from Matt Bowden (29). With the score on 192-4 with five overs remaining, the Cross were looking for a score of 230. However, the excellent left arm spin from Jaydeep Bhatti (2-53) was very difficult to hit and the Cross struggled to find the boundary. After a couple of big hits from Steve Rimmer, the Cross closed on 223-6.

Thame lost two early wickets to the express pace of Harry Packer (5-30). But Michael Beard (22) and Bhatti (19) responded with some dogged defence and Thame reached tea on 61-2.

The Cross hit back through Duncan (2-29) and Ed Montague (1-22) with two quick wickets immediately after tea. Three further wickets a short time later from Duncan and Rimmer (2-42) reduced Thame to 117-7 and the Cross could smell victory.

However, Manoj Parmar decided the best form of defence was attack. He smashed an 89 ball 81 and took Thame to 179-7 with four overs remaining.

With victory slowly slipping away, the Cross were now getting desperate. With the last throw of the dice, Harry Packer was re-introduced to the attack. With his fourth ball, he had Seetal Patel caught in the gully and two balls later trapped Chris Jeffcock leg before. Thame were nine down with three overs left. In his next over, he found the outside edge of Parmar’s bat and the catch was snapped up by keeper Sam Litchfield. The Cross had won with eight balls to spare.

Only Gerrards Cross, Aston Rowant and Reading can now win the title. Next week the Cross travel to Beaconsfield, Aston Rowant host Burnham and Reading are at home to Falkland. However, for either Gerrards Cross or Reading to have a chance of winning the title, Aston Rowant must fail to beat Burnham.