Guildford vs Esher

Guildford were captained by Tommy McMurray on his return to play his former club Esher.

Guildford won the toss and elected to field in a game reduced to 25 overs each with Toby Higgins and Able George taking the new ball with Toby Higgins taking an early wicket . Kay for Esher batted well for his 27 before being bowled by Alex Bhatt in a somewhat mixed over with some extras and some absolute jaffas being served up taking 2 wickets!! Myles Haarhoff was making his U14 debut bowling 5 tight overs against good batsmen with Forword hitting 50 off 36 balls to help Esher to a challenging score of 168 -7. Wickets were shared around with Toby Higgins taking 1, Alex Bhatt 2, Tom Farley 2, Noah Dyer 1 and Tommy McMurray also taking 1 only conceding 10 runs off his 3 overs.

Set a target of almost 7 an over Guildford soon found themselves at 29 for 3 but no 4 Max Champion hit an eye catching 28 off 29 balls (4x4's) putting on 45 with Tommy McMurray who was settling in at the other end. Tommy McMurray was then joined by Myles Haarhoff and together they put on 51 with both batsmen punishing any bad bowling that came their way including 2 sumptious 6's for Tommy who ended on 47 off 42 balls (5x4's and 2x6's) with Myles eventually being out for 25 off 31 balls (3x4's). These 2 important partnerships got Guildford ahead of the run rate but as the Esher opening bowlers came back the pressure began to build. Toby Higgins hit 10 off 15 balls but batted for the team running the singles and smashing any loose balls as Guildford began to drop behind the run rate. Luke Tearle hit 12 off 13 balls with 2 important 4's and was joined in the last couple of overs by Finlay Ryan. With 12 required from the last over in what would have been an unlikely win 11 were taken off the first 5 balls, including a no ball, with both Finlay Ryan and Luke Tearle swinging at everything and running quickly with Fin especially quick between the stumps and backing up expertly. With 1 run required from 1 ball for the win the best bowl of the match was delivered with an off stump yorker bowled from wide of the crease as Finlay Ryan lined up the legside so honours were shared as the stumps were splattered and a tie was the final, and probably fair, result.