An amazing last-ball wicket by New Zealand overseas star Vic Davies gave Three Bridges a 64-run victory against Worthing on Saturday.
Bridges’ skipper Danny Alderman won the toss and chose to bat first on the decent surface, which proved the right decision as his top order batters finally clicked. Openers James Chadburn and Brad Gayler looked untroubled by the new ball spell and shared an opening stand of 70 before Chadburn feathered a catch to the keeper off young spinner Harry Dunn for a well made 45.
Richard Webber continued his recent good form, and he shared a stand of 84 with Gayler before he was well caught by Michael Gould off the bowling of Luke Vinter for 47. Gayler clooked set for his maiden century but on 76 misjudged a quick single and was well run out.
A quickfire 25 from Alderman helped take Bridges to 226 and full batting points when he was run out, prompting the declaration at five wickets down.
Worthing opener Gould in particular tried to hit Vic Davies out of the attack early on, but after hitting a six and a couple of fours he played one shot too many off Davies and was bowled for 16.
Worthing’s top order then collapsed to 47-5 as Davies and Abi Sakande ripped through the batters with relative ease.
Jigga Parekh then induced keeper Gooding into driving hard but only found Sakande at mid-on and the score was 58-6 and Bridges were set to win easily.
However, Worthing skipper Darryl Rebetts and veteran Andy Lutwyche had other ideas, and they stunted the Bridges attack for over 20 overs.
Rebbetts made an accomplished 51 before Alderman introduced himself into the attack and immediately had him trapped LBW, which was quickly followed by a good leg side stumping by Gayler to leave Worthing on 131-8 and 15 overs left.
Sakande (3-33) bowled an excellent Yorker leaving Worthing 157-9 with seven overs to block out. Both Lutwyche and Dunn looked in little trouble, although Dunn played and missed at a few Davies deliveries but still held firm going into the last over. With all the Bridges fielders crowding the bat, Davies tried to get him out throughout the final over.
Davies (4-38) eventually produced the perfect yorker to clean bowl the youngster, leading to Davies running off towards Worthing seafront and his jubilant team-mates trying to catch him up!