Another close finish as Fillongley win Hilditch Semi Final
After a succession of tense cup finishes, Fillongley prevailed again last night, winning through to the final of the Hilditch Cup, by beating Ambleside by four runs.
Ambleside won the toss, and Fillongley made a great start, with 26 taken off the first two overs. However Ambleside pulled things back incredibly well, restricting us to 56 at the 10 over stage, and taking important wickets. Phil Hammond turned the innings around for Fillongley, smashing an impressive 65, accompanied by a cameo from Kyle. Simon also added some entertainment for the crowds, hitting the ball into the deep, running the first one short, and being run out going for the second – one of the most eventful first ball ducks that you’re likely to see.
It fell to Shawn Tregonning to face the last two balls, from which he clubbed a 4 and a 2, leaving us with a total of 141 – a great recovery in the last 8 overs.
We’ve failed to defend totals on a couple of occasions recently against Ambleside, and we knew that we’d need a good start. Thankfully we got it, with 3 wickets in the first 2 overs, which helped to peg Ambleside back. Ambleside counter-attacked well however, and were probably slight favourites with 5 overs left, wickets in hand and around 40 needed.
In the end it all came down to the last two balls. Ambleside were on the same total as we’d been at the same stage, but had lost more wickets. Shawn was bowling, but could he stop them outscoring his 6 runs? A dot and a two said that he could, and Fillongley won by four runs.
So yet another close game, and one that seemed to me to be played in a very good spirit. We look forward to a rematch against Ambleside in the league next Thursday.
The final is at Attleborough against Wolvey on July 9th.