Hanging Heaton suffer last ball agony in T20 finals day

Hanging Heaton suffered an agonising last ball defeat to Bradford & Bingley in last Sunday's Twenty20 Finals Day at Pudsey St Lawrence.
Nick Connolly helped Hanging Heaton defeat his former club Methley in the T20 semi-finals.Nick Connolly helped Hanging Heaton defeat his former club Methley in the T20 semi-finals.
Nick Connolly helped Hanging Heaton defeat his former club Methley in the T20 semi-finals.

An enthralling day, which had seen some surprisingly low scores in all three matches, went right down to the wire as Bradford & Bingley edged home.

The two semi-finals had failed to produce a half century from any player but that changed in the final.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Gary Fellows, who is the Bradford League’s top runscorer with 603, made 58 in the face of tight Bingley bowling.

Bradford & Bingley bowlers kept things tight and all of them were rewarded with two wickets apiece.

All five Bingley bowlers picked up two wickets, with Jack Hartley (2-18) the most economical as Heaton posted the final day’s top score of 143 all out.

Bingley’s reply was dominated by their 20-year-old opener Jack Edgar.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Edgar had helped knock Heaton out of the Priestley Cup the previous week and again proved their nemesis, making 80 not out as wickets fell around him.

Heaton kept chipping away but Edgar saw his side move level with two balls to spare.

Overseas player Muhammed Rameez produced a dot from the penultimate ball and Bingley survived an lbw appeal on the very last ball to scramble a leg bye and seal victory.

The game went remarkably close to producing a super over for the second time at finals day after Bingley had edged past hosts Pudsey St Lawrence in their semi after both sides finished on 139-8.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

For the super over, each side had to choose three batsmen and one bowler.

St Lawrence backed young Charlie Parker as their bowler and his over yielded 12 runs with Noman Ali crucially hitting a big six.

St Lawrence started well with James Smith sweeping Ali for four but after a single from the second ball, Mark Robertshaw was run out.

Chris Marsden took a single but when Smith missed the fifth ball the game was up. One final single was mere consolation. Bingley had won 12-7.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

Hanging Heaton have been to finals day on three occasions but have yet to lift the trophy, despite reaching their first final with victory over Methley in the second semi.

Methley batted first but were restricted to 134-7 in the face of good bowling from Fellows (2-20) and second teamer Chris Goodair (2-29), with opener Marcus Walmsley (32) top scoring.

Sohail Raz returned the day’s best bowling figures of 4-10 but Methley’s hopes were ended by former player Nick Connolly, who made an unbeaten 42.

Connolly hit five fours in a patient 50 ball innings, Rameez chipped in with an important 29 from 22 balls before Connolly shared an unbroken seventh wicket stand with Oliver Newton to see Hanging Heaton home with four balls to spare.