It was another bumper crowd at the Reside Agency Stag Park as the young Norder Stags took on Burnley CC in the ¼ final of the T20 compeition with a spot at finals day up for grabs.
Skipper Humphreys won the toss and elected to bat first. Disaster struck as the captain, who had scored an impressive 274 runs at an average of 91 in his 4 group stage games, fell for just 6 well caught and bowled by Tripathi.
The Norden professional Jermiane Blackwood realised the importance of not losing another early wicket and batted very sensible to begin with. At the other end Jack Taylor added an impressive 35 off just 34 balls, including 3 sixes whilst putting on 66 runs for the second run partnership. McKeown (18) put on 59 with Blackwood, who had now started to accelerate. The return of Tripathi proved pivotal when he had Blackwood caught on the mid-wicket boundary. However, the Jamaican had scored a vital 58, off just 39 balls, including three 4’s and four 6’s. Crabtree (16*), Hussain (9) and Farooq (7*) rounded things off for the Stags and they finished on 162-5 from their 20 overs.
The mood around the ground at half time was that the score was around par, and the in-experienced bowling attack would have to bowl well to win the game.
Burnley came racing out of the blocks with Shah smashing 21 of just 13. As the power play finished Burnley were well in front. Skipper Bedford was going at a run a ball 30, ably supported by Hodge. At 79-1 at the end of the 8th over things were slipping away from the Stags. Skipper Humphreys turned to 15 year old Abu Farooq and 16 year old Olly Yates with the ball. The two youngsters bowled a superb 8 over spell that only went for 49 runs and more importantly yielded 3 wickets with Bedford (35), Hodge (18) and Hassan (7) all back in the shed. Crabtree ran out Lawson for just 2, celebrating with an unconventional knee slide.
35 was required off the last 4 overs. Jamie Taylor was re-introduced, having an immediate impact clean bowling the Burnley professional Erasmus for 17.
Tripathi was at the crease with the experienced Brunt and they chipped away at the total gaining 10 runs and 9 runs from the 18th and 19th overs. It went down to the last over with Blackwood bowling and Burnley needing 11 runs to win. The over started with two dot balls before Trapathi hit a 4. Blackwood kept his nerve and two singles followed. It came down to the last ball with a six needed for Burnley to win. Trapathi struck it to deep mid-off, but it was a one bounce 4. The scores were tied, but confusion reigned as not many on the ground seemed to know what happened next. Super over? No. The rules state that in the event of a tie the team losing least wickets wins. Norden had lost 5 and Burnley 6.
A great game of cricket in front of an excellent crowd. The young stags (the five amateur bowlers used had an average age of 17) had done themselves proud and now have a finals day to look forward to on Saturday the 26th of July at Littleborough.
Scorecard : http://www.lancashireleague.com/Scorecards/1373/1373543.html
Highlights : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEzQ8nRP_LQ