Firsts Relegated After Final Over Frustration
Keyworth 1st XI fell into Div D after a last over heartbreak at the Field of Dreams.
Had the visiting Collingham team failed to get the 7 runs required off the last over, a winning draw for the Millers would have seen them finish 4th place in the league. But with all the other mid table teams winning, KCC were cruelly relegated by 0.07 of an average point.
Keyworth came into the final match of the season knowing that 9 points would see them safe whatever happened elsewhere in the league. With Captain Tindsley, Bobby and Rocket all absent, Liam Elliott, AC and Kitcho were promoted to fill the void.
Skipper for the day was Iggy, and knowing that the Millers had not batted out a losing draw in living memory, he chose to bat first after winning the toss, hoping that the visiting Collingham side would not chase down the total. The visitors were also in with a shout of winning the championship should they win and West Bridgfordians lose.
Ted and IG opened up and KCC were soon 1 wicket down with the young left arm opener rearranging Boom Boom’s stumps after only 4 deliveries. Jay (26) and IG then put on a great partnership with Ian reaching his 50 with the score on 58! 65-1 after the first 20 was a perfect platform. IG had used 3 bats by this point – breaking the first one lengthways into two pieces!
When IG fell for 69 the score was 107-2 off 29 overs, and this allowed Ben (40 in 35 balls) to come in and bat aggressively – deciding that if the ball was up in the slot it was going to the boundary. This was much to the annoyance of the Collingham bowlers who were unfairly calling the young tyke a slogger amongst other things.
Conversely, late in the innings AC (18) was slogging, and hit a marvellously ugly 6 to deep square leg in the process.
205-9 off 48 was about par and importantly gained the Millers full batting points.
Tea was a fantastic spread by Justine and Ian, ticking all the boxes, with highlights included old school corned beef & pickle sandwiches, fancy egg custards and a plethora of fruit.
In reply, the Collingham batsmen simply couldn’t handle the swing and seam of Strongy (2-47) and Kitcho (1-22), with too many balls to count going past the outside edge. But they did get just rewards and KCC were in the hunt with their 3 early wickets leaving the score at 18-3.
This brought David Pipes to the wicket, who had a charmed life before he made 20, but after that played a steady innings picking off the bad ball to keep their run rate well above 3 an over.
At the other end, wickets kept falling every so often leaving the game finely poised at 6 an over required off the last 10 with 4 wickets in hand. By 6pm the night was drawing in and the ball was hard to pick up. By the finish at 7.30pm, it was nearly dark.
It came down to the last 2 overs with Strongy back in the attack and IG bowling through. Dave bowled a great over with no boundaries off it, leaving 7 to win off the last still with 4 wickets in hand. First ball IG took a wicket, and the Millers were cock a hoop, sensing that Pipes could be stranded in the 90’s at the wrong end of the pitch if they could stop a single. However the new bat had other ideas and forced away the first ball he faced to the boundary relieving all the pressure. The next ball went for 2 and the fourth again went to the boundary to secure the victory with 2 balls remaining. Collingham batted like Champions, and deservedly claimed top spot after Bridgfordians lost to Kimberley II’s. The Millers had to wait until the next day to see if the 7 points they had picked up would be enough to keep them up. Unfortunately Gedling Colliery collected 20 points which meant they stayed up by 2 points at KCC’s expense.
Had the visiting Collingham team failed to get the 7 runs required off the last over, a winning draw for the Millers would have seen them finish 4th place in the league. But with all the other mid table teams winning, KCC were cruelly relegated by 0.07 of an average point.
Keyworth came into the final match of the season knowing that 9 points would see them safe whatever happened elsewhere in the league. With Captain Tindsley, Bobby and Rocket all absent, Liam Elliott, AC and Kitcho were promoted to fill the void.
Skipper for the day was Iggy, and knowing that the Millers had not batted out a losing draw in living memory, he chose to bat first after winning the toss, hoping that the visiting Collingham side would not chase down the total. The visitors were also in with a shout of winning the championship should they win and West Bridgfordians lose.
Ted and IG opened up and KCC were soon 1 wicket down with the young left arm opener rearranging Boom Boom’s stumps after only 4 deliveries. Jay (26) and IG then put on a great partnership with Ian reaching his 50 with the score on 58! 65-1 after the first 20 was a perfect platform. IG had used 3 bats by this point – breaking the first one lengthways into two pieces!
When IG fell for 69 the score was 107-2 off 29 overs, and this allowed Ben (40 in 35 balls) to come in and bat aggressively – deciding that if the ball was up in the slot it was going to the boundary. This was much to the annoyance of the Collingham bowlers who were unfairly calling the young tyke a slogger amongst other things.
Conversely, late in the innings AC (18) was slogging, and hit a marvellously ugly 6 to deep square leg in the process.
205-9 off 48 was about par and importantly gained the Millers full batting points.
Tea was a fantastic spread by Justine and Ian, ticking all the boxes, with highlights included old school corned beef & pickle sandwiches, fancy egg custards and a plethora of fruit.
In reply, the Collingham batsmen simply couldn’t handle the swing and seam of Strongy (2-47) and Kitcho (1-22), with too many balls to count going past the outside edge. But they did get just rewards and KCC were in the hunt with their 3 early wickets leaving the score at 18-3.
This brought David Pipes to the wicket, who had a charmed life before he made 20, but after that played a steady innings picking off the bad ball to keep their run rate well above 3 an over.
At the other end, wickets kept falling every so often leaving the game finely poised at 6 an over required off the last 10 with 4 wickets in hand. By 6pm the night was drawing in and the ball was hard to pick up. By the finish at 7.30pm, it was nearly dark.
It came down to the last 2 overs with Strongy back in the attack and IG bowling through. Dave bowled a great over with no boundaries off it, leaving 7 to win off the last still with 4 wickets in hand. First ball IG took a wicket, and the Millers were cock a hoop, sensing that Pipes could be stranded in the 90’s at the wrong end of the pitch if they could stop a single. However the new bat had other ideas and forced away the first ball he faced to the boundary relieving all the pressure. The next ball went for 2 and the fourth again went to the boundary to secure the victory with 2 balls remaining. Collingham batted like Champions, and deservedly claimed top spot after Bridgfordians lost to Kimberley II’s. The Millers had to wait until the next day to see if the 7 points they had picked up would be enough to keep them up. Unfortunately Gedling Colliery collected 20 points which meant they stayed up by 2 points at KCC’s expense.
posted by kccblogger @ Sunday, September 05, 2010
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