Cheltenham Cricket Club Beaten By Chipping Sodbury's Under 15s In National Cup
Article Date: 27th June 2011
Last Sunday was the Gloucestershire Finals Day to see who would represent Gloucestershire in the next round of the U15 NatWest National Cup.
Four teams took part at Cheltenham CC:- Chipping Sodbury Cricket Club, Cheltenham Cricket Club, Pak Bristolians Cricket Club and Lydney Cricket Club.
Sodbury Play Cheltenham in First Match
Chipping Sodbury were drawn to play Cheltenham in the first semi-final. Cheltenham were the favourites to win the day what with all their representative players, but Sodbury had other ideas.
Cheltenham won the toss and elected to bat first. They got off to a rollicking start and raced to 34 after 4 overs for the loss of 1 wicket.
Cheltenham Bring Attack to Sodbury Bowlers
They continued to cart the Sodbury bowlers to all parts of the ground and reached 101 in the 13th over when they lost their 2nd wicket.
Sodbury bowlers then managed to regain some control and Cheltenham only managed to add 47 runs in the last 7 overs.
Cheltenham finished on 148 for 3 after their 20 overs with Lloyd Evans scoring 54 n.o retired. The Sodbury fielders didn't help their bowlers in this game as they managed to drop 5 catches.
Sodbury Face Difficult Chase
With Sodbury needing to score at 7.45 runs/over to secure victory a quick start was required by the 2 openers to give us any chance of victory.
Adam Febry(26) & Tom Makepeace(24) started well and got to 34 when Tom lost his wicket in the 5th over.
Rate Creeps Up to Almost 10 Runs an Over
The batsmen kept the scoreboard ticking over but the required run rate was fast approaching 10 runs per over.
In the 14th over Sodbury lost their 4th wicket with the score on 92 which brought Matt Bethell to the crease.
Sodbury required 55 off 9 overs and Matt Bethell & Aidan McMahon(15) took the score up to 133 when Aidan lost his wicket.
Match Faces Exciting Finish
This left Sodbury requiring 16 runs off 12 balls but the situation got worse when Tim Hodgson was bowled 1st ball.This left 16 runs required off 11 balls.
Matt Bethell & Nic Hambly managed to get 10 runs of the 19th over leaving 6 required from 6 balls.
The 1st ball of the 20th over was a dot ball,the 2nd went for 3 and the 3rd went for 1 which left us requiring 2 runs to win from 3 balls.
Nic Hambly hit a single of the 4th ball which left us requiring 1 run to win with 2 balls left.
Bethell Does it for Sodbury!
Matt Bethell then finished the game off with a well struck 4 through the mid-off region which meant Sodbury went through to the final to meet Pak Bristolians.
The Sodbury Man of the Match for this game was Matt Bethell for his 44 n.o off 24 balls which included 3 fours & 2 sixes.
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