Banbury entertained Abingdon Vale at white post road on Saturday in the second round of the Cherwell League cup.
On a used and wearing wicket, banbury won the toss and elected to bat.
The innings got of to a good start with both Andy and Lloyd Sabin finding the boundry regularly. The tempo of the innings changed when the pace was taken off the ball by the introduction of P White. Andy Sabin fell soon after, LBW to J Boon for 30.
Steve Beck and Lloyd Sabin battled through the next 12 overs, but runs were hard to find. And as the dots continued to build, something had to give and Beck was out caught by a quality catch at short cover for 19.
Chris Board then took the attack to P White, and hit his last over for 14, to leave White with figures of 9 – 2 – 32 – 1. Board continued to bat with agression, and the momentum swung back towards Banbury.
Lloyd was finally out in the 29th over for a well constructed 38. Mark Rorich and Boardy continued the good work, but when the big effort for runs at the end happened, Banbury lost their last 7 wicketd for 40 runs in 8 overs. Board finished with 39 and Rorich 18. Without a cameo 21 from Ross Freeman, a total of 180 was looking likely.
There were 2 incidents of note in the last 2 overs, firstly Paul Hill tried to hit the ball out of Bodicott, but missed and was bowled. The second, was watching Neil Megson sprinting a 2. He finished 5 yards short!!
Banbury finished on 201 all out.
Abingdons reply started well with D King looking to bat aggressively, which in the end was his downfall. After some banter, King was heard saying "If you keep bowling that pace, I will keep slogging you!! " to Freeman. The very next ball, he played another big shot, and was caught by a exceptional one handed catch at mid-on by A Sabin. An over excited Sabin then ran around like a madman, repeatedly shouting " Go on, slog that one, go on !! "
The Banbury bowlers then chipped away, and wickets kept falling at regular intervals. The 8th wicket was taken in the 29th over, with the score on 129.
C Roderick was hitting the ball very cleanly, and was still dangerous, but needed support, and he found it in D Hartley. The pair put on 64 in the next 14 overs. This left Abingdon needing 8 to win off the last 2 overs.
At this pint Banbury were very tight on time, and had 3 minutes to complete the 44th over, else a 6 run penatly would be incurred.
The experience Hill was bought back into the attack, and after 3 singles off the 1st 3 ball, the 9th wicket was finally taken. Hartley was out for 20. This caused a problem for Banbury, as the length of time it took the batsmen to come to the crease, the 3 minutes had elapsed. This meant only a wicket in the last 2 balls could keep Banbury in the game.
Using his experiance, Hill bowled a wide!
Needing to just survive the last 2 ball, Hill bowled a big spinning delicery that P White could only chip up to Beck at short mid-wicket. Resulting in a victory snatched from the jaws of defeat!
C Roderick finished 91 not out including 8 4s and 4 6s.
The final bowling figures were :
L Manley – 9 – 0 – 39 – 0
R Freeman – 9 – 2 – 33 – 2
S Beck – 6 – 1 – 23 – 1
P Hill – 8 – 0 – 38 – 3
C Board – 6 – 0 – 30 – 3
J Coles – 6 – 0 – 23 – 0