Yet another engaging final between Ealing and Sunbury at NPL that could have gone either way.

Ealing won the toss and decided to bowl first. Priyatam Kantilal delivering a maiden of tight off-spin as Sunbury looked to prevent a repeat of the cup final held a month ago where they had lost too many early wickets. Gradual acceleration from Sunbury took them to 34-0 from the power play with openers Kajus Syed and Matthew Gillespie laying a solid platform before a double-strike in the 7th over from Priyatam.

For the next 6 overs Sunbury upped the scoring rate and looked like they could be imposing a big total before Noah Lovell came on and stemmed the flow with a double-wicket maiden and Nate Bhardwaj, Sunbury’s main aggressor, had the misfortune of hitting his wicket when facing Rutik Kantilal. A strong final few overs from Aryan Mittra and Sarthak Thakur took Sunbury up to what looked like a par score of 136-8.

In reply Jake Bridge and Absar Muhhamad got Ealing off to a solid start in the power play staying up with, but not ahead of, the required run rate of 7 runs an over. This would be a theme throughout the innings where any attempts to get ahead of the rate would be kept in check by Sunbury taking a key wicket.

This lasted until the end of the 17th over. At this stage Ealing were 5 wickets down needing 21 to win with leg-spinner Zain Ahmed bowing to captain Rohan Paul and the match very much in the balance. A wicket now and it felt like Sunbury would be ahead going into the final 2 overs with new batters at the crease, but it was Ealing that blinked first with Rohan taking 12 from the over with some excellent calculated aggression. From there Ealing saw it home relatively comfortably with 2 balls to spare and Rohan finishing on a very well constructed 39 not out from 28 balls, ably supported by Akein Rajapakse.

Many congratulations to the Ealing CC U17 Boys