Dan Hardy hit a four off the final ball of the 17th over to seal a superb six wicket win over Sandford and see Bradninch to a second successive Sunbelt Rentals Devon T20 Cup success.
It also means that Bradninch are only the fourth team to win back-to-back Devon T20 Titles since it was first played for over 30 years ago!
After brushing aside the challenge of Bovey Tracey in their semi-final, Gary Chappell and the Ninch team were tasked with defeating a Sandford side that had comprehensively beaten Plymouth in the first match of the day.
Sandford skipper Richard Foan won the toss and opted to bat first.
Ross Acton sent down the first over that just three runs came from – two off the bat and one a leg bye.
Chas Classen bowled the second over and it saw the South African claim two wickets in two balls! The first ball of the over saw Ryan Glass score a two and the second ball was a dot ball, but the third ball knocked over the stumps of the Sandford opener and, with the very next ball, Classen sent Jack Ford back to the pavilion, knocking over his stumps too! Sandford skipper Richard Foan was next man in and, after a dot ball he took a single off the last delivery for his side to be 6-2 after two overs!
In the third over, sent down by Ross Acton, Foan, who once wore the Ninch colours, hit three successive fours and, as the fourth over began, the score was 21-2.
Classen sent down the fourth over which went for just five runs and then Mitch Pugh was tasked with delivering the fifth and he did so in some style too – sending down five dot balls and a wicket ball, clean bowling Jonathan James for an eight-ball two.
Classen bowled the sixth which yielded just four tuns and the second Pugh over saw him trap Chris Jelley leg before for a nine-ball two to leave Sandford on 34-4 after seven overs.
Skipper Chappell sent down the eighth over in which his opposite number hit him for six.
The Sandford skipper did similar to Pugh in over nine, hitting him for a six and, as the 10th over began, Sandford were 51-4.
At this stage of the contest it was very much a case of Richard Foan versus Bradninch! Foan lost Jake Griffiths as his batting partner when he was caught by Pugh off the bowling of Josh Farley with Griffiths out for a 14-ball eight.
Tyler Morgan-Huggett joined his skipper and the one-man Foan action continued. Indeed, at the end of the 14th over, the Sandford skipper was 66 not out from 39 deliveries faced with the team total 94-5.
However, Ross Acton was recalled to the attack to send down the 15th over and, with his second ball, Acton knocked over the stumps to end the Foan effort with the bat.
Gary Chappell claimed the seventh Sandford wicket, clean bowling Morgan-Huggett for a 16-ball 13 to leave Sandford 107-7 after 16 overs.
Josh Farley was bowling at the other end and he also struck, in his case with the final delivery of the 17th over, removing Tom Gidney for a run-a-ball five thanks to a Mitch Pugh catch.
There were to be now more wickets taken across the last three overs with Chappell having just three off the 18th while Farley went for only seven when he bowled the 19th and so it was left to the bowler who had started things off 19 overs before, Ross Acton, to wrap things up. The 20th and final over went for 10 runs to leave Sandford closing on 137-9.
Chad Classen took the bowling honours with his figures of 2-18 off his four overs, but it was all mighty close with Mitch Pugh returning impressive figures of 2-23 from four while the Josh Farley return was 2-33 from his four. Ross Acton’s figures were 1-32 from four while skipper Gary Chappell had figures of 1-23, also from four.
It was the skipper and Tim Piper who launched the reply, but both fell early, as did Ross Acton and, five overs in, Ninch were 37-3.
Already back in the hutch were skipper Chappell who was caught and bowled Jake Griffiths for a four-ball two, Tim Piper, bowled by Griffiths for a 14-ball 17 and Ross Acton, who was caught by Tudor Morgan-Huggett to give Griffiths a third wicket, Acton sent back with a nine-ball 16 to his name.
Mitch Pugh was oined by Dan Hardy and the pair settled into their task with three runs scored off the sixth over, eight off the seventh and four off the eighth to leave Ninch 52-3 at the start of the ninth over.
Nine runs were scored off the ninth but, three balls into the 10th over Pugh was caught by Tudor Morgan-Huggett off the bowling of Chris Jelley and out for a 21-ball 26.
This left Ninch on 65-4 and the next man in was Eliot Acton.
Four runs were scored off the 11th over and nine came in the 12th. Acton launched the first ball of the 13th over over the ropes for a six and Hardy also found the boundary in an over that yielded 13 runs to leave Ninch on 93-4 after 13 overs, now needing 45 runs from the final seven overs at a rate of a run-a-ball.
Acton hit back-to-back fours in the 14th and Hardy did the same in the 15th over, at the end of which Ninch were 117-4 with the winning line ‘very much in sight’.
The final two balls of the 16th over saw Acton hit Jack Ford for a six and then a four and, when Acton took a single off the fifth ball of the 17th over, the scores were level!
It was Dan Hardy who delivered the final blow, rifling the final delivery of the 17th over to the boundary to launch the celebrations.
Hardy ended unbeaten on 35, hitting five fours during his 30-ball stint with the bat and Acton ended unbeaten on 41 scored off just 24 balls, hitting four fours and two sixes to help seal another famous T20 cup success.