Southill Park U15s brought home the first trophy of the season with a well executed seven wicket victory over Bedford in the ECB National T20 County Cup.
On a perfect night for cricket, Southill Park Cricket Ground was buzzing with excitement as Bedford won the toss, elected to bat and got off to a flying start. Bedford openers Emilio Gay (21) and Ed Els (12) put on 29 for the 1st wicket before Avi Patel pouched two good catches to dismiss the pair.
Rahul Sheemar (24) was expertly run out as a result of a fine piece of fielding from Oli Hind followed by similar good work by Jamie Azulay to secure a second run out.
Cameron Monteith ((21) was stumped by Will Barrett who was outstanding with the gloves as he picked up a total of three stumpings and one catch in an excellent display of wicket keeping. Park held all their catches with Shaylen Tomlinson-Patel and Hind safely taking one each. All ground fielding was of a high standard with Vani Canagasabey making some fine stops.
The Park bowlers, Ed Johnson (1-20), Kav Canagasabey (0-18), the wily Oli Thrasher (1-15), Tomlinson-Patel ((1-24), the impressive Patel (4-11), Hind (1-11) and Ally Darlow (0-3) bowled tight accurate lines that saw Bedford dismissed for a below par 103 in the final over.
Southill then batted sensibly and calmly to get home with seven wickets and eight balls to spare.
The classy Bhavik Talsania (28) and the impressive Tomlinson-Patel (50 retired) put on 54 for the 2nd wicket leaving Avi Patel (13 not out) and Johnson (3 not out) to hit the winning runs and secure an away tie to the Northants County T20 winners on Sunday, July 6.