Dramatic win for Cropston
LATE DRAMA
CROPSTON travelled to Keats Lane, Earl Shilton on Saturday and maintained their lead at the top of Division One with a dramatic last ball victory.
Earl Shilton batted first, with openers Ethan Hawkins and Giles Holmes making steady progress putting on 74 in 12 overs against the Cropston seam attack of Tom Palmer and Justin Earl. The introduction of Dan Hickinbottom with his flighted spin soon brought rewards,with Hawkins falling for 35 and Holmes for 37 both caught at first slip by a diving Joe Pollard. Coming on as third change Sam Hickinbottom bowled in tandem with brother Dan, together they slowed the scoring rate and chipped away at the Earl Shilton middle order.
From their 45 over allocation Earl Shilton scored 181 for the loss of seven wickets.The Hickinbottom brothers both bowled their 12 over allocation Dan returning figures of 2-39 and Sam 4-45..
The Cropston openers Ross Wormleighton and Max Lewin put on 19 for the first wicket, but the innings then collapsed with Joe Pollard falling for 0 and Steven Punchard for 1. The innings stood at 52 for the loss of 5 wickets and the writing looked on the wall for Cropston.
Coming in at number 6 Daniel Hickinbottom played with great maturity and batting with the tail Alex Thompson 25 and Justin Earl 16 took Cropston towards the winning line.
When the last over commenced, eight runs were needed to win - four singles were taken and on the fifth ball Hickinbottom was bowled for a well struck 87.
Striding to the wicket Cropston number 11 Tom Palmer knew all three results were possible from the final ball of the match. The ball pitched up and with fielders set for the drive Palmer got an inside edge and the ball flew to the vacant fine leg boundary giving Cropston a win by one wicket.
A Cropston come back from the jaws of defeat, showing great charac- ter. This win keeps Cropston top of the league a mere twi points ahead of Newtown Linford and seven in front of Kibworth 2nd XI.