VILLE USE GET OUT OF JAIL CARD
Dropped catch off last ball takes semi-final to dramatic ‘Super Over’
Waterlooville reached the Southern Premier League’s T20 Plate final following a dramatic ‘Super Over’ victory over Portsmouth & Southsea.
Both sides scored 109-9 off their 20 overs at St James with the visitors hitting 14 off their last over, bowled by Matt Benfield, to force a tie.
P & S would have reached their second Plate final in a row - they lost to Fair Oak in 2020 - had they not dropped a catch at extra cover off the final ball.
Ville pair Alex Shepherd and Sonny Reynolds only managed seven runs off their ‘Super Over’ - three twos and a single - bowled by Jono Willey.
With Ville progressing if the super over was a tie - due to hitting more boundaries in their 20 overs - P & S needed eight to win.
They scored four off the first three balls of Reynolds’ over before Jack Davies was run out coming back for a second run.
That brought Tom Benfield into join his brother Matt, but Reynolds took his off stump out of the ground first ball.
With sides not allowed to lose two wickets in a super over, Ville were victorious by two runs.
‘We got out of jail,’ conceded Ville chairman Andy Reynolds. ‘It was a crazy, crazy game - great entertainment for the neutral.’
After winning the toss, Ville had inserted their hosts and reduced them to 26-4.
Sam Hillman (2-14) removed openers Dean Lee (4) and Chris Bollom (5) before Sonny Reynolds picked up two key wickets in four balls.
First, Jack Davies (8) was caught by Shepherd before Matt Benfield (2) was caught by Haydn Knight.
Sonny Reynolds ended with 4-10 as P & S, thanks to Ollie Kanavan (23) and Tom Benfield (18), crawled to 109-9.
‘They were on the back foot,’ said Andy Reynolds. ‘They did well to get 109, but most people felt that wasn’t enough.’
Those cynics were almost proved wrong, though.
Opener Shepherd hit spinner Keiran Dunstan to mid-on in the second over and it was 7-2 when Jon Hudson (0) was stumped a few balls later.
Sonny Reynolds hit 19 off 16 balls, with four boundaries, before Dunstan (3-18) had him caught by Lee to make the score 27-3.
Matt Williams (4-21) tied down the middle order, and Ville were 71-8 with just five overs remaining.
Charlie Jackson (15) and Sam Robinson put on 30 for the ninth wicket before the former, having hit the first ball of the last over for six, was bowled off the second.
Last man Sam Hillman was dropped at long on off his first ball before smacking the next to the boundary.
That left Ville needing
IN THE AIR three for victory off the last delivery or two to tie - and, thanks to a dropped catch, the game was tied.
Ville now progress to play Basingstoke & North Hants in the Ageas Bowl Plate final on September 19.
Brad Neal thumped an unbeaten 83 off 56 balls as Stoke posted 151-7 at May’s Bounty against Totton & Eling.
Shantanu Shahane (4-20) then helped restrict Totton to 118-8.
The Plate sem-final success was Ville’s second tense victory in as many days following a one-wicket win against Fair Oak in the Southern Premier League.
After bowling promotion-seeking Oak out for 95, Ville looked set for a relatively comfortable success after reaching 84-5.
But four wickets then clattered for the addition of just four runs, bringing last wicket pair Ashan Silva and Chris Parker to the crease. It was Ville’s second collapse of the innings, having earlier lost three wickets with the score on 55 to slump to 55-5.
Silva (8 not out) and Parker (0 not out) held their nerve, though, with Silva hitting the third ball of the 37th over to the boundary for the winning runs.
Alex Shepherd (19) and Haydn Knight (17) top scored for Ville with Rhys Oxley bagging 4-22 for the losers.
Captain Charlie Gwynn (46) and opener Gregor Mckenzie (22) had been the only Oak batsmen to hit more than seven.