Nail Biting Final Over Drama Ends in West Herts Win

The weather was once again overcast conditions with forecasted showers through the day. West Herts captain Bill Gage won the toss and elected to bowl first.

Senior opening batsman Will Ray came back into the Hertford team after missing the previous week because of self-isolation and opened with Alan Jones. The opening bowler Gage was rewarded with the wicket of Ray for 0 after bowling a diligent line and length outside the off stump while swinging the ball away and finding the edge to the wicket keeper. This brought Cavener to this crease, Cavener looked to rebuild with Jones against the swing bowling of Gage and Woosley. Gage continued to bowl tumbling away swingers which managed to edge Cavener off. In form Fayaz Homyoon strolled to the crease following a mid-week century but was removed lbw by a full delivery from Gage for 7. Jones was joined by Richard Leather and Hertford was again in the position of rebuilding. Opening bowler Woosley came out the attack and was introduced by the off spin bowling off Mane which was found to be less troubling. Gage continued to bowl a very long opening spell and continued to swing the ball outside the off stump and managed to remove Jones at short extra cover.

1st season Hertford all-rounder Jaime Regan arrived at the crease and showed good intent and ball striking against the spin bowling lofting the Mane over the top for boundaries. Richard and Jaime worked hard at the crease to find runs. Richard was removed lbw for 16 from ex-Sri Lankan international Perera who found good purchase from the deck. Regan and James Leather looked to play an attacking style of batting to counter the West Herts bowlers. Hertford was looking more comfortable at the crease and looked to be taking the game away from the opposition side when a tight run out removed leather. Skipper Ben Cowell looked to be proactive at the crease and work with Regan but was removed by Perera lbw with a questionable call which looked high and spinning down the leg side. Perera continued to take wickets with his challenging off spin. Amidst the collapse, Regan was still at the crease and batting very well and brought up his first league 50. The Hertford innings ended at 131 following the run out of Jon Ryan. The Hertford innings showed glimpses of high quality but also a lot of tame dismissals.

Although 131 seemed under par on a good pitch the Hertford bowling was in good form after bowling Harpenden out for 109 and the fielding is always of high class and backs up the bowling well. James Leather and Adam Carlson opened the bowling and immediately caused problems for the West Herts openers. The first breakthrough was made by Carlson edging off Gregg Sumpter to Hugh at first slip. Adam Carlson was bowling with good rhythm and confidence following his 5-wicket haul against Harpenden. James Leather continued to pose problems but was unlucky to not find the outside edge of the batsman.

The main changing point in the game was Regan removing dangerous Sri Lankan pro batsman Perera with a full toss which was miss timed and sliced in the air. Perera was striking the ball on the up and looked capable to taking the game away. Soon after Regan found the edge of Ali Hassan caught down the leg side by Cowell. The Hertford boys were up and pumped and creating a hard atmosphere for the batsman. The West Herts team were undoubtedly nervous after watching the departure of their main batsman in quick succession.

Opening batsman Simon walker was still at the crease and fighting hard for each run scored. The introduction of seasoned veteran Jon Ryan had immediate effect and found wickets and contained the scoring. Ryan found the major wicket of opener walker caught behind off a fantastic delivery. The game was up for the grabs for both teams. A win, loss and a draw were on for both teams at many points in the last overs. Skipper Cowell was adamant about going for the win and setting aggressive wicket taking fields and having slips in place which was an excellent decision as Carlson caught Mane at second slip for 0 of Regan’s bowling.

Coming into the penultimate over Woosley pushed a tight single to Jones and was run out by a direct hit. This left wicket keeper Kendal coming out at number 11 and 4 to win off the last over. Last year tight encounter saw Kendal cleaned bowled for a golden duck. Ryan bowled the last over and the nervous energy was apparent from the batsman. Kendal managed to swing and connect to hit the ball over mid-wicket for 4 and win the game for his team. The shot concluded an excellent game of cricket at West Herts Cricket Club.

(Fantastic contributions were made from Jaime Regan, Adam Carlson and Jon Ryan. 15-3, 32-2 and 29-3)

Author: Alan Jones