Bradninch Ladies dished up one of the most thrilling contests seen at Bradninch in many seasons as they ended up beaten by Taunton Deane Ladies by the margin of just one run as the match ran the distance – only being decided on the final delivery of the day!
Batting second, as the final over began, Bradninch had skipper Meg Acton at the wicket and, with 12 runs required, then skipper rifled the first ball of the over to the boundary, the second ball saw Megan and Fi Moran (the non-striking batter) run two. Now, with four balls remaining, it was a case of six runs to win. The third ball saw the pair scramble a leg bye, and they did off the fourth – now it was down to four runs to win from two balls. However, the penultimate delivery knocked over the skippers stumps which left Sarah Stanbury trooping out to face the final delivery knowing that a three was needed to tie the game and a four to win it.
Sarah played a wonderful first shot, cutting the ball down towards the shed at the Mill End of the ground. Buoyed by a vociferous crowd, the batters ran two and set for a third run that would leave the game ending in a tie, but the ball was thrown to the non striker’s end where Sarah was three feet short of making her ground and just two runs were scored, leaving the visitors winning by the smallest of margins.
Taunton Deane batted first and closed their 35 overs with a score of 173-5.
It was opening bat Niamh Wait who underpinned her teams final score, batting through the 35 overs to finish unbeaten on 85, scored off 94 deliveries, hitting eight fours. The principle supporting knocks came from Charlotte Wade, who retired unbeaten on 27 from 53 balls (two fours) and there was 22 from the bat of Grace Kibble, scored off 32 deliveries (three fours).
The best of the Taunton Deane partnerships was the 79 put on for the unbroken opening wicket by Chelsea Chamberlain and Niamh Wait. There were 22 extras in the Taunton Deane total, two byes, 15 wides and five no balls.
In terms of the home bowling effort, the honours went to young Faye Ross, who claimed a brace of wickets for 34 runs in the six overs she sent down. There were also single wickets for Yvonne Jackson (1-23 from seven), Heather Stanbury (1-37 from seven) and Louisa Squire (1-36 from seven) while the other two bowlers to turn their arm over were Kirsty Trude (0-38 from seven) and skipper Meg Acton (0-3 from one).
Kirsty Trude and Yvonne Jackson launched the Bradninch reply and the pair gave their side a wonderful start, taking the score to 68 when, to the final delivery of the 14th over, Kirsty was caught by Grace Kibble off the bowling of Tanya Dicks. The home opener trooped back to high applause having scored 33 from the 56 deliveries she faced.
Louisa Squire joined Yvonne and the pair continued where the opening duo had left off, taking the total to 109 when, to the fourth delivery of the 25th over, Yvonne fell, caught by Tanya Hicks off the bowling of Zoe Frowde for a 67-ball 33.
That brought skipper Meg Acton out to the middle and she played out a couple of deliveries to see her team begin the 26th over needing 65 runs to win from 10 overs (60 balls).
Meg and Louisa kept up with the required run rate – Meg hitting a four in the 27th over and again found the boundary in the 29th while Meg hit back-to-back fours in the 28th over before Louisa hit a four in each of the 29th and 30th overs.
It all meant that, at the start of the 31st over, with 30 deliveries remaining, Bradninch needed 35 runs to seal what would be a season’s double over the Somerset side.
The 31st over proved very profitable with Louisa hitting successive fours as, aided by a wide, 11 runs were scored to leave Bradninch on 150-2, starting the 32nd over needing 24 runs from 24 balls.
Over 32 was a great one for the Somerset ladies as just a single came from it and now the equation was one of 23 runs needed from 18 balls.
Over 33 was almost as good for the visitors as it yielded just three runs so, when the penultimate over began, Bradninch needed 20 runs to win from a dozen deliveries – advantage Taunton Deane.
However, the pendulum swung back the way of the home team as Meg sent the third delivery to the boundary and the fourth ball saw the pair run a three. Alas though, the good news did not keep coming as Charlotte wade bowled Louisa with the fifth delivery of the over and the Bradninch number three was out just a single run shy of what would have been a richly deserved half century.
Louisa faced just 59 balls for her 49 runs.
Fi Moran was next in and she faced the final delivery of the 34th and penultimate over and that turned out to be a dot ball.
So, as the final over began, Bradninch needed those dozen runs. Captain Meg drilled the first ball to the bkundary then she and Fi ran a two, that was followed by back-t0-back leg byes – FOUR runs to win from the last two balls, but Captain Meg was bowled by Anvika Biju for a wonderful 31-ball 26 and Sarah Stanbury was run out going for a third run, the fielder responsible for the throw being Chelsea Chamberlain – a run that would have left the game tied and so, a magnificent attempt at a run chase ended in the narrowest of defeats – BUT WHAT A GAME A LARGE TURNOUT AT KENSHAM PARK WAS ABLE TO ENJOY.
Agonisingly for Captain Meg and her team, the home score ended on 172-5 in reply to the Taunton Deane 173-5.
The pick of the visiting bowling returns was the 1-5 from three overs delivered by Tanya Dicks while the ‘best of the rest’ was the 1-24 from six overs sent down by Charlotte Wade while Anvika Biju finished with 1-28 from seven overs. The others to claim wickets were Zoe Frowde (1-28 from five).