Mindgamers win tight finish as tragedy strikes... Mindgamers skipper Partridge chose to insert Ipplepen and opening bowler Gorny made an early breakthrough as Ipplepen skipper C Crocker nicked off. A good stand between Maynard and J Heath then progressed the score at a good rate until R Cowdry made the next breakthrough, although the wicket owed much to a good catch at deep mid off by the Mindgamers overseas player Harvey. The deceptive spin of Greenall then accounted for King but another good Ipplepen partnership between Maynard and T Crocker looked to put the hosts back in control. The return of Gorny removed both dangerman as he cleaned up T Crocker (13) and then induced an aerial shot from Maynard (60) which was well taken by the safe hands of Heaver on the cover boundary. However if the Mindgamers thought they had seen the back of the main batters, they were wrong as Horrocks and T Heath set about posting a good score. Horrocks smashed the ball to all parts of the boundary and hit a reverse sweep for four runs from the last ball of the innings to bring up his half century, with T Heath unbeaten on 16 and the partnership adding 62 to set the Mindgamers 188 to win. Gorny ended with figures of 8-2-46-3 with R Cowdry 8-1-21-1 and J Norman 8-1-33-0. In reply the Mindgamers set off at a good rate with Harvey and Heaver adding 67 in the first 14 overs. The introduction of H Lewis resulted in the first wicket with Heaver clean bowled for 27 and not long after that the same player took a good catch at long on to remove overseas player Harvey for 30 from the bowling of the evergreen B Heath. Heath struck again soon after to remove D Cowdry and end his spell with figures of 8-1-18-2 but the Mindgamers were then able to work towards the victory target with a partnership of 77 between Wylie and J Lewis. Wylie brought about his half century before retiring and after Cooke removed Richards thanks to the faintest of nicks, Greenall strode to the wicket to accompany Lewis with 13 needed from 18 balls. Having safely negotiated the target down into single figures, the stage was all set for the winning runs to be struck by Greenall. Cooke bowled a ball outside off stump which Greenall duly struck with style and ferocity through cover point. As the ball raced over the rope to hand Mindgamers victory, Greenall fell to the floor writhing in agony. It transpired that in hitting the winning runs, Greenall had incurred some kind of serious knee injury and being obviously in a deal of pain, an ambulance was summoned and Greenall was taken to hospital for precautionary x-rays. We await news of the fallen hero... However the sad end was in contrast to a great game of cricket which went down to the final few balls, with a number of excellent performances especially the bowling of Gorny and B Heath, separated by well over 60 years!
Posted on: Sun, 27 Jul 2014 20:56:53 +0000
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