Rushden & Higham CC shock both Oundle Town and Peterborough Town on Northants T20 Finals Day, but Premier Division title race just became more interesting
Oundle Town lost their grip on the Northants T20 Championship and with it the chance to go one better than last season’s runners-up place in the National competition.
Oundle lost by five wickets in a final against Rushden & Higham which went all the way to the final ball. Rushden had beaten Peterborough Town by 13 runs in a semi-final with both teams scoring over 200 at Geddington CC.
Oundle scored an under par 151-9 in their final innings. No batsman managed to contribute more than the 25 scored by Sam Batten and Rushden & Higham looked set for an easy win when opener Ewan Hughes-Rowland set out on his second brutal knock of the day. He smacked 73 from just 43 balls (5 6s, 6 4s) before Will Park dismissed him.
Oundle fought back well enough to take the match to the final over bowled by seamer Conor Craig, but Rushden completed the 11 runs required to win from the final delivery of a cracking match when they ran two. Harrison Craig (2-23) was Oundle’s most successful bowler.
Oundle had chased down Old Northamptonians’ 120-7 in 17 overs to win their semi-final by 6 wickets. Soon afterwards Hughes-Rowland pummelled the Peterborough Town attack for 69 from 32 balls (4 6s, 10 4s) which was followed by a murderous 91 from just 37 balls from overseas star Chanaka Ruwansiri (4 6s 13 4s) as Rushden piled up 215-3.
Town were given hope by Kyle Medcalf’s 74 from 44 balls (5 6s, 7 4s) and 40 from captain David Clarke, but a defiant unbeaten 28 from Scott Howard could only get the city side up to 202-6.
It was a much better Saturday in the Northants Premier League for the local clubs as Oundle opened up the title race by beating runaway leaders Finedon by seven wickets which enabled second-placed Peterborough Town to close the gap to 17 points with a nine-wicket win over Desborough at Bretton Gate.
Finedon, who collected just one point, were rushed out for just 67 at Milton Road as the Craig brothers, Conor (5-19) and Harrison (3-13) ran amok. Finedon’s innings lasted just 20 overs and four balls leaving Oundle with a simple run chase. Third-placed Oundle are 31 points off top spot.
Peterborough Town didn’t need to exert themselves much more as Desborough mustered just 96 all out in 22 overs and five balls. Bashrat Hussain (4-26), Hayatullah Niazi (3-17) and Karanpal Singh (2-6) all bowled well for the before Clarke (43 not out, 37 balls) sped his side to victory.
The city side perhaps will be wary of the cock-a-hoop Rushden side next Saturday (August 2) when Oundle look to have a much easier task at next-to-bottom Desborough.
Town have a T20 Cup Final at Ketton Sports CC on Monday (5.45pm) when they tackle Uppingham in the Stamford Shield decider. Town have won the competition in each of the last two seasons.