Bray make it past Burnham
Maidenhead & Bray avenged their defeat in last years final with a nail biting win by 1 wicket with one ball to spare.
Burnham chose to bat and started well and were 40 for 1 after 6 overs. The main contribution coming from J. Khan(34) who was playing fluently. However the introduction of Vishal Valambhia looked like it was a mistake when his first ball was dispatched for 6 straight back over the sightscreen. Two balls later J. Khan tried it again but was clean bowled and the fight back began! Tight bowling from Valambhia (4-13) Najeeb Bashir (3-19) and Ryan Bezuidenhout (1-21) meant a steady procession of batsmen with only H. Khan (18) putting up much resistance but he succumbed to Bashir trying to go for runs just before he would have been retired (Julian Rule). Some excellent fielding in conjunction with the bowling kept the score down to a getable 93 all out.
Bray knew that the plan of batting sensibly and working the ball around mean’t 94 in 20 overs was very achieveable as long as they didn’t lose wickets regularly. This plan however only Gully Khan in the top order seemed to remember(Retired Julian Rules 12). Brett Van Niekerk started well with two straight drives but was clean bowled by Nayim Baig playing across the line forcing the score. The score had progressed to 40 – 1 after 7 overs but a silly run out accounted for Faisel Chaudhary and then Najeeb Bashir after planting Mohindru for 6 on the longest boundary was LBW playing across the line a couple of balls later. This reduced Bray to 51-4 in 10 overs and with the re-introduction of Baig. This soon became 54-6 as Baig clean bowled both Bezuidenhout and Sharoze Raja. Zaheer Iqbal then tried a reverse sweep and was given out LBW to Mohindru and Burnham looked like they were in the driving seat. However the experience of Amir Riaz and John Hewitt put together a partnership of 27 to bring Bray to within 6 runs of victory. Riaz was then dismissed off the bowling of Nawaz and Burnham began to believe they could still win. In the last over Bray needed two runs to win and with a single off the first ball mean’t the scores were tied. However the pressure being created by the Burnham bowling caused a mix up between Hewitt and Valambhia and saw Hewitt run out by some distance. Valambhia made up for it though as he squeezed the ball through the tight ring of fielding with one ball to spare.
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