THE Charlton Cricket Club's A grade Twenty/20 side won this season's Alliance 1 Twenty/20 cricket cup on Wednesday night, beating Lincoln South to win the final.
The Charlton Chargers manage to set a target of only 125 off their 20 overs and there was a feeling of hopelessness around the Charlton supporters as their players walked out to the field as The GT Eagles were coming off making 216 for the loss of just three wickets in their win over Southern Eyre in the semi final.
Most supporters expected the Eagles' top order - Steve Orchard, Greg Symonds and Craig Reidy - to set their team up or even pass the target, but the normal does not always apply in T20 cricket and it was the Chargers who charged home to destroy the GT Eagles' dream of back-to-back wins when they could manage only 90 runs off their 20 overs.
A great and rewarding win for a club that has worked hard to improve their status, having not won any A grade silverware since 1990/91when they won the A grade premiership.
Charlton 10/125 def GT Eagles 9/90
The first over of the night set the pace and standard in this match when captain Damien Critchley took on Charlton's captain Liam Knight who found the boundary off the second ball, but Critchley struck back on the fourth ball when Symonds took a smart catch to remove Knight and have Charlton one down for four.
Ryan Cottrell joined Yancic, who was batting cautiously with four singles. Cottrell hit the second boundary of the night and hit two more boundaries off Critchley, who struck back to have Cottrell caught by Reidy for 15 to see Charlton two down for 21 off three overs.
Charlton's Yancic was now left to get things back on track but with only four runs he succumbed to Nathan Sincock who, with his first ball, rattled the stumps of Yancic and the Charlton dream was in tatters as they were three down for 33 at the end of the sixth over.
Ryan Murphy joined James Lakin and they put on a 68-run partnership which proved to be a match-winning partnership. They took the score to 101 in the 16th over before Stockham bowled Murphy for 17 and with only one run added Lakin (43) was run out.
Max Bail, who had joined Tokarski, added two runs to see his side at 104 at the end of the 16th over and with four overs left Charlton added another 21 runs.
Nathan Sincock finished with 3/23 off his 3.5 overs.
The GT Eagles would have been a happy lot as they required a run rate of 6.3, but were quickly brought back to earth with a thud as Steve Orchard was run out on the first ball.
Reidy Joined Symonds amongst the silence of the GT supporters and they went about adding 15 runs off the next three overs before Strudwick, who had allowed only two runs off his first two overs, had Symonds out LBW for the Eagles to be two down for 15.
It was up to Craig Reidy to get the scoreboard ticking but he watched on as David Speed was caught by Goddard for three off the bowling of Knight and Murray Kelsh was out for one, caught by Yancic off the bowling of Chatfield, and the GT Eagles were more than stunned with the scorebook showing four out for 28 off eight overs.
With 12 overs to go and 98 runs required to win at a run rate that had climbed to 8.166 this match was well and truly in the balance.
Eagles' captain Critchley strode to the crease and joined Reidy, a good pair to regain the momentum, and they put on 43 runs to take the score to 71 in the 16th over when Chatfield claimed his third wicket, Critchley, caught by Shanley on the fourth ball of his fourth over, leaving the Eagles five down for 71 and requiring 56 off 26 balls.
The Eagles were being dominated by Charlton and added only 15 more runs before the last ball of the final was bowled to finish 9/90.
Charlton's James Lakin won the player of the match medal, which was selected by umpires Peter Forrest and John Mitchell.
Luke Strudwick took two wickets for only 10 runs off four overs and received great support from Chatfield with 3/15 off four overs.
Congratulations to the Charlton Chargers who thoroughly deserve their triumphant and incredible win against the odds.
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