Sat 4th XI
Matches
Sat 23 Aug 2014
Goresbrook Cricket Club
Sat 4th XI
187/4
186
Great Baddow IV
Fours win title with thrilling win over Great Baddow

Fours win title with thrilling win over Great Baddow

Daniel Gillham19 Aug 2019 - 14:29
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Paul Lowe puts Baddow to the sword again

Goresbrook 187-4 47.3 overs beat Great Baddow 186all out 41.4 overs by six wickets

Goresbrook's 4th team celebrated the winning the league title late on Saturday night in dramatic fashion as they beat fellow contenders Great Baddow with just three balls to spare.

Earlier in the season these two sides met and Brook won on the last ball of the game so another tight game was expected and it proved to be the case. Great Baddow batted first on a drying front pitch at May and Bakers and the opening pair of Willis and Withams looked at ease. Danny Gillham Snr and Kernal Kaylan opened the bowling and whilst Gillham exerted control and was difficult to score from Kaylan was being played easily and it was no surprise when Maund replaced him with Daniel Parnell.

Gillham was replaced eventually by under 13 lead bowler Tahmid Khondakar and his first delivery brought success as Withams tried to slap a short ball through mid wicket only to mistime and direct the ball harmlessly to Harry Jackson who made no mistake. Baddow had reached 65-1 and new batsman Harris played shots at will on a batsman friendly wicket.

Khondakar struggled with line somewhat with the cross wind and many deliveries swung towards the leg side and were dispatched comfortably. When Khondakar got it right he was devastating and he blew up the stumps of Willis with a fine delivery that pitched on middle and nipped away to take out off stump.

The dangerous Lazarus was next to fall. Lazarus scored a thrilling 87 against Brook earlier in the season but this time round he failed to face a ball. Harris at the strikers end played a shot to backward square leg where Kaylan fielded well and sent a bullet throw into Gillham Jnr who did the rest to run out the dangerman by a few feet.

Baddow youngster Harris continued to attack for Baddow and a series of straight drives brought him runs a plenty whilst partner Ricky Clark fell to Tommy Puncher who forced Clark into an erroneous drive and the safest hands in Goresbrook, Adi Kumar took a good catch.

Harris was joined by fellow under 15 player Beard who looked a very good batsman but he was undone after scoring a few good boundaries by the fielding of Kumar who ran him out after Beard had lofted a drive back over bowler Ricci Parnell's head. Parnell who had earlier replaced his son Daniel who had bowled well without reward up to that point got his name on the scoresheet with an excellent swinging delivery that removed Matthew Taylor for nine runs.

Simon Chatfield soon followed, again Ricci Parnell's seam doing the damage as he swung it through Chatfield's guard and Baddow were in a trouble at 130-7. Next in was Jamie Taylor who was a formidable number nine, perhaps the best number nine batsman Brook had faced all season and he played shots from the off and adding runs with Harris before the latter was bowled by a fine delivery from Tommy Puncher.

Maund turned back to the pace of Gillham and Daniel Parnell in an attempt to blast out the tail and it worked as Gillham forced Hunter into a slog that was taken with ease by Kumar again before Daniel Parnell got a reward for his hard work with the wicket of Taylor who went for one shot too many.

This was comfortably Brooks best bowling performance of the season with all bowlers performing when required against the best batting line-up they had encountered. With Baddow dismissed for 186 in just over 41 overs Brook had their entitlement of 45 overs increased by three overs for the chase.

Tea was hearty and there was an increased element of quality in the freshest bread of the season and a noticeable increase in the portion of filling between the two soft slices. The hot sausage rolls also went down a treat. Although the bowl was empty Maund managed to source several from Daniel Parnell whereas Danny Gillham Jnr had been most indulgent with a sizeable collection of fourteen that were hidden from sight under his pasta.

Brook opened there chase with the resurgent Paul Lowe and under 15 Harry Jackson. Colin Pannell started the bowling for Baddow and the first over was a maiden, a sign of things to come. In over five Harry Jackson fell, the unwavering accuracy of Pannell his downfall. Having dotted out for a dozen balls Jackson attempted a shot and was bowled by Pannell.

Two balls later and Adi Kumar had come and gone trying to play across the line and he fell in the same manner as Jackson. Lowe was joined by Tommy Puncher and the pair were completely bogged down at one end by Pannell and basically gave up any thought of scoring a run off the Baddow skipper. When Paul Lowe scored a single off Pannell in the 19th over of the innings it was met with applause and disappointment as all those present really wanted to see twelve straight maidens.

In fact Pannell had managed nine on the spin and in total fifty six consecutive dot balls. He finally finished his tremendous spell of bowling with amazing figures of two for six off twelve overs and nine straight maidens.

During this time though Goresbrook were scoring at the other end. James Hurter was getting played to all parts of the ground and young leg spinner Grant Beard although bowling the odd peach was getting scored from. From a position of 15-2 Puncher and Lowe showed maturity beyond their years (which in Lowe's case suggests considerable maturity -Ed) to move the hosts along to 70-2 before the heavens opened and play was suspended for 45 minutes.

With Baddow needing a positive result to keep their title ambitions alive they were quickly out into the middle following the last drop of rain and Lowe and Puncher quickly followed and they quickly moved the score on to 108-2 before Puncher fell for a patient 36.

Captain Keith Maund was next in and immediately looked to up the scoring rate. His form of late has been good leading some to suggest that he would now get himself into the team on batting ability alone rather than his role as captain and he and Lowe were able to score runs from both ends. Baddows bowling attack was not as good as the lengthy batting line up seen earlier on and they tried to fill several overs with part time spinners and not quite so accurate medium pacers.

The pair looked comfortable but scoring became more difficult as darkness started to fall as the sun set in the west and Lazarus was brought into the attack. Using his height his slow deliveries bounced up high and diminutive skipper Maund struggled to play many shots. With fifty runs needed to win off the last ten overs Brook looked to be out in front but the tight bowling coupled with the fading light saw the gap between runs required and balls left reduce over by over.

With nine required from twelve balls it looked like plain sailing but Lowe was run out for a tremendous 92 and Kaylan came in to join his skipper. Lowe put Baddow to the sword in both games this season, scoring a magnificent 165 runs against them in the two games and he would have enjoyed his knock on the front pitch which he graced for a quarter of a century as a May & Baker CC player.

The target became nine from just seven deliveries but a stupendous cover drive from Maund off the last ball of Lazarus spell turned the game again in Goresbrooks favour and when Kaylan smashed Hurter back down the ground for four with five balls left Goresbrook had achieved at least a tie and promotion was gained, but following a dot ball Kaylan worked the ball through the close field for a single and clinched the league title for the May and Bakers based club.

Maund said to the club website after the game "What an achievement. Having lost the first game of the season we have won fourteen out of sixteen games. All those who have turned out for us have played a part in this great achievement. We have won this with a mixture of classy colts and experienced veterans and it just goes to show what can be achieved when you work together as a team and believe in yourselves".

Club spokesman Richard Williams also added, "What a terrific achievement for Keith and the 4s, the role of 4th team skipper is the maybe the 2nd hardest in the club, behind fielding at slip to Israel Ocwho, possibly level with trying to accommodate Shane Barwick's request for fielding positions for his bowling with only 9 outfielders available......and Keith has performed this role superbly over the years. He rarely has the luxury of selecting from a pool of more than 11 players, he spends most Friday's scrambling around to fill his side and he did all that in the Lords league knowing he was likely taking his team out for a hiding."

"One of the main reasons why we joined the Mid Essex league was to get more appropriate games for the 4s and I'm delighted they've had such a fantastic year. Hopefully in years to come the likes of Danny Gillham jnr, Adi Kumar and Tahmid Khondakar will be first team players and I'm sure they'll have great memories of their introduction to men's cricket."

"it's also been great to see old hands like Dave Leadbetter and Paul Lowe making big contributions and enjoying their cricket as well as players like Darren Boland, who just lacked a bit of confidence, flourishing under Keith's captaincy."

Goresbrook Bowling
Danny Gillham Snr - 11-1-40-1 (plus 9 shot handicap cut for next year's golf day)
Daniel Parnell - 7.2-0-30-1
Tahmid Khondakar - 5-0-17-2
Ricci Parnell - 10-1-38-2
Tommy Puncher - 5-0-32-2

Gorebrook Batting
Paul Lowe - 92
Tommy Puncher - 36
Keith Maund - 25no
Kernal Kaylan - 5no

Match details

Match date

Sat 23 Aug 2014

Kickoff

13:00

Meet time

01:00
Team overview
Further reading

Team Sponsors

Senior Section Sponsor - Abacus Shutters Ltd
Stumps Sponsor - Wood International Agency