Sherborne School 1st XI 143-9 (20 overs) Sam G 47

South Gloucestertshire and Stroud College 108 all out (19 overs) Charlie R 3-15

Won by 35 runs

Sherborne eased into the next round of the National T20 cup with a convincing win against opponents who had plenty of talent but lacked the depth to hurt us.

Despite the early loss of Jordan G and Myles B-H, we moved convincingly to 112-3 by dint of two impressive innings from Fergus O’C (31 including two big sixes) and Sam G whose 47 contained a pleasing mix of shots down the ground as well as dinky paddle sweeps and powerful cut shots. Sadly he was yorked just short of his 50. At this stage we were looking like a score in excess of 150 but again lost wickets in a clump with nobody else going beyond 12. Nonetheless we looked positive in our approach.

Our opponents had shown that spin was useful on this pitch with their two off spinners taking 4-14 and 2-17. Charlie R imaginatively chose to open with Arthur R-G to their two left handed openers and both he and Ollie L-B bowled well in a double-barrelled assault that left SGSC 4-2 and wobbling. Their captain Gammon looked a good player but Ben L showed his continued ability to dismiss good players with one that caught the edge off a good length. At 25-3 we were in the driving seat, but a fifty partnership attempted to divert our journey to victory. We had already dropped a couple of catches, but then suddenly our fielding rose to the standards we were looking for. Three impressive run outs, all of them from the boundary, the first one a great throw from Myles B-H and two others from Ferg and Ben D showed how important fielding is to victory. Ferg also picked up a catch on the boundary and Sam G completed his Player of the Match performance by stumping SGSC’s last remaining hope. In the end it was a comfortable win by 35 runs, with Charlie R taking 3-15 off his three, well backed up by Tom M with 1-19 off 4 and Arthur with 1-11 off 3.