Hertfordshire vs Cornwall match report
Hertfordshire v Cornwall
M.C.C.A. Knockout Trophy, Group 1
Sunday 13th May 2012 at North Mymms C C
Hertfordshire won the toss and batted
Hertfordshire 243 for 4 (50 0vers)
Cornwall 244 for 7 (49.1 overs)
Points: Cornwall 2; Hertfordshire 0
Eddie Ballard (52) and Gary Brown (18) put on 52 before the first wicket fell in the twelfth over to give the Hertfordshire innings a good start. Then Steve Snell (41) and Eddie Ballard carried on in the same mode to score another 61 runs before Steve Snell was given out LBW in the thirty-first over. Eddie Ballard then was stumped in the thirty-sixth over.
By this time Cornwall had put the screws on the Hertfordshire batting and no boundaries were scored between the nineteenth and thirty-seventh overs. But Dan Blacktopp (37) then pushed the scoring along before he was out in the forty-fifth over. This brought skipper Andy Lewis (33*) to the crease and together with Ben Frazer (36 runs off 19 balls) took the fight to Cornwall putting on 53 runs in the last five over overs.
This gave Hertfordshire a more challenging total of 243 but was disappointing after the good start. It was probably 20 to 30 runs short in order to put real pressure on the Cornish batsman.
The Cornish openers Matt Robins (59) and David Roberts (56) went on the offensive right from the start of the innings. They batted with great confidence and it was something of a surprise and relief, when Will Jones (10-1-43-2) trapped the latter lbw at the end of the twenty-second over, but not before they had added 127 at almost six runs an over.
From this seemingly unassailable position for the visitors it says much for the spirit of the Hertfordshire team that Cornwall were then made to work so hard for their victory.
Four balls after the dismissal of Dave Roberts, Matt Robins needlessly contributed to his run out whilst at the non-striker’s end and so a glimmer of hope became evident that the balance of the game was beginning to change.
The spinners, Ben Frazer (10-0-35-0) and debutant Simon Lindop (10-0-36-2) from Bishop’s Stortford, made the batsman work very hard for their runs between the twentieth and fortieth overs. Simon’s performance was particularly commendable, as he had conceded eleven runs in his first over before changing ends.
The remainder of the innings was dominated by a superb innings by skipper Tom Sharp (62) and with four overs remaining the target was twenty-five runs with six wickets in hand. From the third ball of the forty-seventh over Chris Hankin (20) skied the ball in the direction of square leg. Steve Snell took off from behind the stumps sprinting towards where the ball was dropping some 25 metres away. Diving full length in front of himself he took a stunning catch. With eight balls remaining and eight runs required Sharp was caught at long off for a superb sixty-two from sixty-eight balls. The next two deliveries bowled by Usman Arif were dot balls.
The tension now was immense. From the second ball of the final over bowled by Trophy debutant Gavin Baker, Kelvin Snell (3) skied a catch to long off and so the target was seven runs from four balls. Taylor Williams (2*) scored a single and so six runs were needed from three balls. New batsman Alex Smeeth (6) struck the fourth ball for two runs. The next ball was something of an anti-climax for Hertfordshire as Alex Smeeth swept it behind square leg to the boundary much to the huge relief of the visitors.
The members of North Mymms Cricket Club had worked very hard after so much recent rain to ensure that we had very good game of cricket on a good wicket.
You can see the full scorecard on play-cricket.com by going through the Herts website.
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