LAST Sunday, Sandford 2nds played a T20 against Upottery in the first round of the Ivor Dewdney Corinthian Cup and completed a second nail-biting win of the weekend by just four runs.

Sandford batted first and their innings was built around a great start by openers Jon James 26 (4 fours) and Ben Chaloner 29 (6 fours), who together put on a 1st wicket stand of 57 in only 5.4 overs.

Their excellent start was then followed up by a fine knock of 51 (8 fours and a six) from Tom Gidney, and with Jack James cracking an important 30no (3 fours) towards the end of the innings they guided their team to 172 for 7 from their 20 overs.

For Upottery there were 3 wickets apiece from Lewis Rich 3-15 (3) and Connor McCoy 3-23 (4).

Upottery also made a quick start to their innings, with Matt Broom 63 (9 fours) and Jack Smith 25 (2 fours and a six) adding 65 in 8 overs at the top of the order. Broom then carried on with no.3 Ryan Botley 35 (3 fours) and they appeared to be guiding their team towards victory. However, when Broom was out to part-time bowler Tom Gidney, with the score on 118, the target was down to 54 from 5.1 overs, but they still had 8 wickets in hand.

Botley was then joined by skipper James Mitcham 27 (2 fours and a six), and just when victory seemed in the bag, first Botley departed with the score on 152, and then Mitcham was stumped off of Tom Gidney’s bowling with just 2 balls left and 7 runs required.

The new batter was unable to hit the runs required, and in the end the Upottery innings fizzled out at 168 for 4 to give Sandford their second remarkable victory of the weekend.

Gidders finished with 2-28 (3) but more importantly prevented the opposition from scoring the 9 runs they required from the last over, and following on from his 51 he was certainly the main man on the day for the 2nds.

This coming Sunday the North Devon League team are at home to Hatherleigh with a 1pm start.

Phil Matten