Cropston victorious with penultimate ball of match
NEWLY promoted Oakham were the visitors to Cropston on Saturday and their captain won the toss and elected to bat.
Their innings was held together by opener Wes Durston who scored 62. He was caught at the wicket by Max Lewin from the bowling of Sam Hickinbottom. Coming in at number 4 Vijay Naker dropped anchor and occupied the crease while wickets were falling at the other end. From their 45 overs Oakham posted a score of 189 for the loss of 9 wickets with Naker remaining 56 not out, with Sam Hickinbottom returning figures of 3 wickets for 17 runs.
A highlight of the Cropston performance was the fielding on the boundary there were excellent catches when the ball was put in the air, two by Ian Allen and one each for Alfie Loakes and Joe Pollard.
The Cropston reply did not start well,with Ed Tattersell bowling with pace and swing from the houses end removed both openers for 16 runs.
Max Lewin 32 and Sam Hickinbottom 17 put the innings back on track with some lusty blows before Tattersell struck again. Coming in at number 5 Joe Pollard held the innings together scoring 47 he was then bowled by Tattersell,who then removed Ethan Hawkins and Sagar Pandya both without troubling the scorers.
With Cropston now 9 wickets down in the 40th over, 38 runs were still needed for a win, with a blend of youth Alfie Loakes and experience in veteran Jamie Torrance it was all to play for, with a win, loss, draw or tie all possible.
The pair saw off Ed Tattersell who bowled his 12 overs with an excellent return of 7 wickets for 30 runs. Jamie Torrance 19 not out in 20 balls stood at the non strikers end and could only watch as the last over was to be bowled and four runs required to win. Loakes took two from the first ball and blocked the next three.
On the fifth ball of the last over Loakes drove to mid on and set off for the two runs to tie the game with one ball to go, but with no fielders in the vicinity the ball trickled over the boundary for four to give Cropston a win by one wicket, number 11 Loakes remaining 20 not out.
A welcome 25 points for Cropston who still remain in seventh position in the league, but pulling away from the trailing teams.