BBS Primary Club National Knockout Cup Final 2009
By Dave Gavrilovic
London Metro claimed their third successive BBS Primary Clup national knockout cup title with a record breaking 150 run win over Essex Tigers in a historic final.
The final was played on the main square at Edgbaston cricket ground just three weeks after England had faced Australia in the Ashes on the same pitch. This was the first ever blind cricket match to be played on the main pitch of a test match ground and the weather stayed nice for the occasion.
Essex won the toss and sent Metro in to bat, a decision that looked smart early on when Charles Ronayne bowled Metro’s England captain Matt Dean for just 18 in the 4th over.
That was as good as it got though for the Tigers, after 10 overs Metro had raced along to 80 for 1 with Essex’s tactic of bowling a lot of b1 overs early on clearly back firing.
Essex persisted with using up b1 overs and Metro pair Rory Field and David Townley took full advantage. Eventually Townley was run out for 46, falling just short of becoming the first b1 batsman to get a cup final fifty. Field and Townley had put together a new cup final record partnership of 114 meaning Metro were 141 for 2.
Field and Simon Butler then took the innings from strength to strength with the score racing to 170 for 2 after 20 overs. Field over took his Metro teammate Matt Dean to set the new highest ever cup final score by an individual batsman before being dismissed for 96 just short of the first ever cup final century.
Butler scored 44 as his team finished 260 for 9 after their 30 overs, yet another record, this time the highest ever team score in a final. Two Essex bowlers do deserve a mention, Charles Ronayne took 3 for 34 and was incredibly close to taking a hat-trick and was only denied by a dropped catch. Young Shakir Iqbal also bowled well for 2 for 39.
Essex’s innings started badly slumping to 21 for 2 from just 4 overs. With star batsmen Mohammad Sohail and Chetan Davdra both falling cheaply too Essex were in a world of trouble at 66/6. Shakir Iqbal did manage to restore some pride to the innings with a battling 29 but it was all too little too late as Tigers could only reach 110 All Out. Rory Field (3 for 18), Amit Amin (3 for 24) and Joel Robinson (2 for 12) all bowled superbly.
England test cricketer Darren Maddy was kind enough to come along and present the trophies at the end of the game which was brilliant for all of those who played in the game and Rory Field and David Townley were deservedly named the partially sighted and b1 man of the match respectively.
Of course our thanks go to the Primary Club for their fantastic support of blind cricket and to everyone at Warwickshire county cricket club for all their help organising this event.
Scorecard
British Blind Sport Primary Club national knockout cup Final 2009
Essex Tigers v Metro
at Edgbaston
Saturday 22nd August 2009
Umpires: Pete Marshall & Pete Sugg
Scorers: Gemma Carpenter & Steve Field
Essex won the toss & Chose to field first
Metro Innings
Rory Field Caught C Davdra Bowled Shazad Iqbal 96
Matt Dean Bowled C Ronayne 18
David Townley Run Out 46
Simon Butler Hit Wicket Bowled Shaqir Iqbal 44
Dave Powers Bowled Shaqir Iqbal 13
Joel Robinson Run Out 1
Heindrich Swanepoel Bowled C Ronayne 5
G Dean Bowled M Sohail 1
Amit Amin Caught M Sohail Bowled C Ronayne 2
Mark Bond not out 0
Ashish Goyal not out 2
Extras:( 3B, 1LB, 10NB, 18W) 32
Total: 30 overs, for 9 wickets, 260
Fall of Wickets: 1-33 (M Dean), 2-149 (Townley), 3-223 (Field), 4-246 (Powers), 5-247 (Robinson), 6-247 (Butler), 7-251 (G Dean), 8-258 (Swanepoel), 9-258 (Amin).
Bowling
Bowler-overs-maidens-runs-wickets-no balls-wides
F Iqbal 4-0-51-0-1-7
C Ronayne 6-0-34-3-1-2
Shaqir Iqbal 6-0-38-2-3-0
Shazad Iqbal 6-0-63-1-1-7
A Whipp 2-0-24-0-2-1
M Sohail 6-0-46-1-0-0
Essex Tigers Innings
Chetan Davdra Caught S Butler Bowled D Townley 23
Ali Safder Bowled H Swanepoel 0
Fiaz Iqbal Bowled J Robinson 0
Mo Sohail Caught A Amin Bowled J Robinson 8
Naz Safder Caught & Bowled R Field 3
Andy Whipp Caught M Dean Bowled A Amin 2
Danny Smith Caught M Dean Bowled A Amin 9
Shaqir Iqbal Caught M Dean Bowled R Field 27
Shazad Iqbal Caught M Bond Bowled R Field 0
Charles Ronayne Caught S Butler Bowled A Amin 5
David Burt not out 2
Extras: ( 1B, 4NB, 26W) 31
Total: 19.4 overs, All Out, 110
Metro won by 150 runs
Fall of Wickets: 1-4 (A Safder), 2-14 (F Iqbal), 3-37 (Sohail), 4-49 (Davdra), 5-57 (N Safder), 6-59 (Whipp), 7-97 (Smith), 8-100 (Shaqir Iqbal), 9-105 (Ronayne), 10-110 (Shazad Iqbal).
Bowling
Bowler-overs-maidens-runs-wickets-no balls-wides
H Swanepoel 4-1-10-1-2-2
R Field 5.4-0-18-3-1-1
J Robinson 2-0-12-2-0-1
D Townley 2-0-25-1-0-12
A Amin 4-0-24-3-1-6
G Dean 2-0-20-0-0-4
Man of the Match Winners
Totally Blind: Dave Townley (Metro)
Partially Sightedd: Rory Field (Metro)