Sherborne 1st XI 180-5 off 20 overs (Jordan G 51, Sam G 40, Fergus O’C 37)

Bryanston 1st XI 135-8 off 20 overs (Charlie R 3-17, Ben D 3-24)

Won by 45 runs

Sherborne moved convincingly into the quarter finals of the south west section of the T20 National Cup with a real team display against Bryanston. Many of the team had attended the funeral of coach Josh Lawrence earlier in the day and the performance was a fitting tribute to him.

A new opening pair, Fergus and Sam took to batting together with aplomb, Fergus hitting some impressive lofted drives and Sam making the most of the short square boundary on one side. They put on 82 from ten overs before both departed picking out deep mid wicket. Jordan came in at 3 and seemed keen to empty his mind of all the thoughts of his recent exam that resulted in his late arrival. He played a brilliant innings of 51 off 29 balls including four mighty sixes. He was well supported by Will T whose cameo ended 4,6, caught at deep cover, and Patrick R who played a delightful audacious scoop over the keeper’s head in a partnership of 68. What was most pleasing amid the flurry of the boundaries was the number of well judged singles and twos we picked up.

180 is a daunting score to chase in any non IPL related T20 game but Bryanston were 56-2 off 6, despite Arthur R-G bowling a stunning opening spell of 2-14 off 4. Our seamers were finding the wicket harder to assert control on, so we turned to the other two in our tweaking trio, Charlie R and Tom M. Both bowled excellently conceding just 38 runs from their 8 overs. Charlie achieved the rare feat of a T20 triple wicket maiden. By then the game had gone for Bryanston despite an outstanding innings from their number 3 of 87* off 57 balls. He also took 2-15 off his 4 overs and was my player of the match. But we played as a team. It was good to see Ben D on his return to the side pick up three wickets at the end as Bryanston finished 45 runs short, a huge margin in such a short format.

Our ground fielding was energetic and we caught five catches, including two really good ones by Charlie R and Ben L, the former a key grab taken over his shoulder running back, and the latter a steepling ball that came down with bits of aircraft fuselage attached to it. We did manage a couple of comedic drops so the search for perfection goes on, but there was a deep sense of satisfaction at a true team performance.