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Match Summary: vs. Old Rutlishians, Sunday, 24 Aug 2014

Ground: Old Rutlishians
Captain: John Tither
Match type: 40 overs
Toss: Old Ruts elected to bat
Weather: Partially cloudy
Opposition: Old Rutlishians scored: 243 for 5 (40 overs)
Exiles Score: 244 for 7 (40 overs)
Result: Won by 3 wickets
Man of the match: Terence Moynihan Last ball six!

charts of Exiles wicket partnerships for this match
Score board
 Batsmen RunsBalls4s6s
John Tither (C)hit wicket  26 
Chris Plume b. 76  98 
Dominic Hodgson b. 
Karamvir Mangat lbw 63  54 10 
Bernard Leuvennink ct. 32  19 
Simon Gundry b. 13  15 
Will Kent (W)not out 
Ammar Akhtar b. 
Terence Moynihan not out 14 
10 Andrew Wingfield dnb      
11 Naren Patel dnb      
  Extra(s) 1nb 8w 14b 5lb   28      
    244  241   
Bowling
 BowlerOMRWAvg
Naren Patel  4.0 4
Bernard Leuvennink  4.0 25 0
Terence Moynihan  8.0 40 0
Ammar Akhtar  8.0 55 55
Simon Gundry  8.0 38 38
Chris Plume  5.0 34 34
Karamvir Mangat  3.0 21 0
Wicket Keeping and Fielding
PlayerCatchRun OutStumpingPenalty
Bernard Leuvennink   
Dominic Hodgson    

When a slightly dis-organised looking Exiles side took the field with 7 players to take on a keen-looking and youthful Old Ruts side, the portents didn’t look good. And despite the eventual arrivals of the rest of the Exiles side, 40 overs later and with a score of 243/5 on the board, the harbingers of doom were already sharpening their pencils. Maybe it was the excellent tea, or maybe it was the strange dismissal of the skipper, but suddenly the Exiles woke up and produced a club-record chase, with a last ball six from Terence Moynihan providing the ultimate climax to an increasingly engrossing encounter.

Things started off uninspiringly for the Exiles as a negotiated toss saw Old Ruts batting first. The Old Ruts skipper commenting to John something along the lines of having a youthful side and ‘not much batting’. Surely if this is your concern, you opt to bowl first, to ensure a reasonable game for your opposition rather than risk getting skittled in 20 overs? Either way, the returning Exiles skipper agreed to the terms and watched on as the Old Ruts batsmen made hay.

Naren Patel started off well – with his shoulder assisted by some magic spray - and soon bowled one of the openers, round his pads as the ball straightened to hit leg. Amusingly the same thing had nearly happened the previous ball, but most of the opposition, the Exiles fielders and certainly the batsman thought keeper Will Kent was just making strange noises, not realising how close the ball had been to hitting leg stump.

That breakthrough was as good as it got for the Exiles for a while as the no’s 2 and 3 both cracked half centuries, though annoyingly the no 3 kept hitting the ground and making it appear he’d edged the ball through to the keeper.

The returning Simon Gundry made the breakthrough – having the tall opener caught at square leg by Dominic Hodgson and following a further onslaught by the no 4 in more agricultural fashion, Ammar Akhtar struck with a yorker. With Chris Plume soon striking as well thanks to an awfully-judged-yet-still-caught catch by Bernard Leuvennink in the covers, there was renewed hope amongst Exiles ranks that they might be able to go through the rest of the Old Ruts side and keep the target to not much more than 200. Remember the opposition ‘didn’t have much batting’.

The no 6 then came in and cracked a superb 38 not out off 20 odd deliveries including a superb straight six of the luckless (until he batted) Terence. The no 3 was finally run out for 78 with 2 balls remaining and a score of 243 for 5 was posted. Although the atrocious opposition scorebook suggested a margin of error of at least 20 runs either way should be allowed.

So Exiles were a bit demoralised at tea – if the oppo had scored 243 with ‘not much batting’ – how good was their bowling going to be? Tea itself was, however, sensational. And it kept coming as well and everyone filled their boots, probably too much.

Tither and Plume opened up, with John circumspect and Chris flying out of the blocks – with 30 of the first 38 runs. At 44/0 off 10 things looked steady enough – with a powerful line-up to come - when the opposition pulled a masterstroke by bringing on a female bowler to bowl at John.

After a couple of dots captain John – Exiles most experienced cricketer with several hundred games under his belt - was talked out by a couple of teenagers behind the stumps who apparently refused to stop talking as the bowler was running in – and after a full toss was skewed just over backward point a frustrated John turned round and smashed his stumps over with his bat.

General bemusement ensued and when the in-form Dominic fell quickly, Exiles were wobbling a touch at 51 for 2. But Exiles debutant no 4 Karamvir Mangat joined Plume in a partnership of 97 to get the Exiles back in the match, with Chris the anchor and ‘Vir’ the aggressor – cracking a hard-hit 63 off 54 deliveries – with 11 boundaries – before one-that-stayed-low accounted for him LBW. Vir being the 9th different player to score an Exiles 50 this season (and John hasn’t even got one – yet!) and the 7th maiden one.

Andy Wingfield was due in next, but was still feeling under the weather so started to self-demote down the batting order. Ultimately a masterstroke. So it was Bernard in at 5 and after a customary couple of nervous blocks, a six to get him off the mark over cow corner got him going. Bernard hit 32 off 18 balls before being superbly held by an athletic diving catch on the cow corner boundary.

Exiles were still in decent shape however at 193 for 4, as Simon strode in to join Chris. Another 23 were quickly added before Chris swung once too many and saw another very fine innings end – his 5th 50 for the Exiles this season – taking his runs aggregate for the season to 426 which is already in the top 10 off all time – the record being 574. And then, for the first time this season, Simon was out – missing another attempted big hit – giving him an Exiles batting average of 109 this season. He’ll need to bat 4 more times in the last 5 games to qualify for the batting trophy however.

219 for 6 and Exiles were starting to lose wickets and that soon became 228 for 7 as Ammar was bowled leaving Will and Terence at the crease, with only a slightly green-looking (and feeling) Andy and Naren to come. When only 5 runs could be mustered off the 39th over, 11 were needed from the last over.

Will – the recognised batsman – was on strike to a bowler bowling slow left-arm darts. An excellent yorker first up could only be dug out. 11 off 5. A single was scambled off ball 2, giving the strike to Terence. Swing and a miss and 10 off 3 now needed. 4th ball and contact was made and the ball arced to the cow corner boundary for 4. Another swing and a miss and 6 needed off the last ball. At this point the Exiles were starting to contemplate how they’d let this one slip away, having been so well placed in the chase.

Fear not as ball six was on a length and Terence swung hard and got a decent chunk of his bat on it and it went high – very high – towards the long on boundary. But it was genuinely 50:50 as to whether it had enough distance as it spun further and further forward – so slowly in fact that two opposition fielders were underneath it as it came down – two yards over the boundary!! Six runs and a 3 wicket win for the Exiles. An incredible end to a superb cricket match and hero-status for Terence.

This was the Exiles highest ever successful run chase – beating 237 against the Imperials in 2011 and the second time a six had been hit off the last ball to win a game for the Exiles following Jeff Hilson’s 6,0,0,0,0,6 game against Barnes Occasionals in August 2005, which Andy and Simon were the only two to’ve also played in. Arguably this last ball six was more valuable as Exiles could’ve drawn the Hilson game as that was a timed match, whilst Exiles would’ve lost this game without a last ball maximum. But both were incredible to witness none-the-less. Here’s hoping this inspirational moment can lead the Exiles to a strong finish to the season.

Report By: Andrew Wingfield

Last modified: 11 March 2018 14:31:46. Top of the page

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