Our Matchplay team agonisingly lost to Witham in a final ball thriller in a super tight quarter final. Unfortunately we had actually won the game in the final over however an umpire blunder cost us the Semi-Final (see above for photo and below for details).

Having been put in by Witham, our openers put on an outstanding opening partnership with Lewis Greenhill the original aggressor scoring boundaries at will before being unfortunately run out for 33. Our other opener Caleb Hutley pushed on as he upped the tempo hitting shots all round the ground reaching an excellent 50!
Unfortunately we lost a flurry of wickets at this stage and went from 60-0 to 108-5. Fortunately our captain James Frans turned on the afterburners and started hitting 4s and 6s at will, ably supported by Dan Laskey who knocked it around well. Fransy looked like he was set for a magnificent century but fell just short, bowled for 91 off 76 balls with 3 overs to go. We lost our last couple of wickets quickly and were bowled out for 227 in 38.3 overs.

In Witham’s response, we bowled really tightly as a group on a good batting pitch, giving little away. Harry Frans in particular bowled 3 maidens in his first 5 overs! Their openers put on a solid 80 partnership before we got both in quick succession, one from Cam Krauth and one from Sam Braund thanks to an excellent James Frans catch. Their strongest two players then put on the best part of 100 in quick time before Alex Warren made the vital breakthrough, quickly followed by running out their best player for 58.
We continued to take late wickets, with Cam Krauth taking 2 more in the penultimate over leaving Witham 9 wickets down needing 12 off the last over.
Their one remaining batter hit the first ball for 4, and then was the controversy second ball.
Their batter hit the ball to Dan Laskey at long off, they went for a kamikaze second run with Dan managing to hit a direct hit from 50 yards away with the batter 10 yards out of his ground! We start celebrating assuming it was all over, except the umpire decided that Fransy had hit the stumps with his knee, which video evidence shows Fransy had moved entirely out of the way of the stumps and the ball clearly smashing both bails off…
Unfortunately their set batter went on to get the remaining runs, with Witham winning off the last ball of the game.
It was a gutting way to lose, especially having literally won the game for all intents and purpose.
However the lads can hold their heads up high after a great performance which they all contributed to!
We’re on a good run in the Matchplay the last few years, fingers crossed we can do even better next season!