Banstead defeat 1s in pre-season match

Reigate Priory was quietly snoozing its way to defeat against Banstead in a pre-season friendly at Park Lane on Saturday when Harry McInley, a number nine batsman with attitude, exploded with his own Carlos Brathwaite impressions, hitting 30 runs in eight balls.
It left Reigate needing six runs to win off the last over – easy-peasy, it now seemed, just as a target of 44 runs to win with three overs left had seemed impossible two overs ago. But it was not to be. And Banstead won by two runs with two balls to spare.
Reigate Priory, who is sponsored by Brookworth Homes, put Banstead into bat on an overcast April day. Banstead may be a Division One side but the team boasts a formidable opening pair in former Surrey and Glamorgan player Tom Lancefield and Banstead skipper Daniel Newton. Last season Lancefield scored 962 runs at an average 53.44 and Newton 553 runs at 32.53.
First ball of the game from the Blue Anchor End, though, Will Hodson bowled Lancefield. And with the last ball of the first over Hodson nabbed a second wicket with Kieran Geyle, a former Zimbabwean under 19 international, being caught by McInley for a duck, on debut.
Nine balls later, Hodson bowled Josh Stainer for 4 and Banstead were 13-3.
Unfortunately for Reigate while Hodson was having a field day (he ended up with 4-22 off seven overs) the other three quick bowlers between them took nought for 80 runs in 16 overs. Newton was providing the resistance in a captain’s innings of 51, before he slipped and was unluckily run out by Simon King at 136-6 in the 32nd over.
Baker, the former Spencer wicketkeeper, had scored 21 in a partnership of 37 with the opener and Craig Short, the wicketkeeper, had scored 34 in a partnership of 61 with the Banstead skipper.
The Reigate spinners did take wickets at regular intervals after that but Reigate skipper Luke Beaven did not bowl himself as he gave new recruits Ben Shoare, formerly of Horsham CC, and Jake Rowe, formerly of Clevedon CC, a chance to show off their talents. Shoare took 2-32 in 6.5 overs, Rowe took 1-24 in 5 overs and King took 2-27 in 8 overs.
But the Banstead middle order kept the scoreboard ticking over. Satbir Mann, at number seven, scored 18 and new Australian recruit Nathan Ellis scored 21 not out as Banstead ended on 192 all out off 42.5 overs.
A target of 193 was eminently doable for Reigate even with a truncated batting line-up of only four top order batsmen. However, as Henry Tye later explained, the pitch was two-paced, with the ball coming through normally part of the time but very unevenly at other times.
Andy Delmont opened with a new partner, Ben Shoare, a prolific batsman with Sussex 2nd XI experience.
But the pair hardly had time to introduce themselves before Banstead’s new opening quickie, Ellis, who plays for one of Donald Bradman’s old clubs – St. George CC of Sydney - bowled Shoare third ball of the innings for a duck.
This brought in Craig Cachopa, the Sussex county batsman, who with Delmont raised the score to 27. Cachopa had been dropped at extra cover by Newton off Ellis at a score of 16-1. But at 27-1 Newton held a second chance (and at the second attempt) off opening bowler Connor Cody as Cachopa departed for 18. Cody is well known to many Llamas having played his Colts cricket at the Priory.
Henry Tye came in at number four to join Delmont for his first innings for the 1st XI for two years, last season being given over to a handful of second XI games and injury.
As both batsmen tried to come to terms with the pitch, the going was slow. It had taken 10 overs for Delmont and Cachopa to reach 27 runs. And now the next 10 overs yielded only 34 runs. At a score of 81 in the 26th over Delmont was bowled by Geyle for 26 off 62 balls and the asking run rate for the win had edged upwards to 5.50 per over.
Beaven, batting at number five, made 11 in a partnership of 28 with Tye before being caught behind off Ellis for 11. Then Rowe made eight before being caught behind off Montabello at 124-5.
Tye’s 50 came up from 89 balls but he left when he was run out for 52 at 139-6. King departed for 22 runs and Stevens for a duck and suddenly the score was 149-8 off 42 overs, with 44 runs needed to win off 18 balls, McInley and Hodson at the crease.
Ellis came on to bowl the 43rd over and the first five balls went for five runs. So far, so sedate. After all, the 21-year-old Ellis is a good bowler. He took 46 wickets in the recent Australian grade cricket season outbowling teammates such as Trent Copeland and Moises Henriques.
The last ball of Ellis’s over, however, was a no ball and McInley hit it for 4, carting the resulting free hit for 6, destroying Ellis’s analysis in the process. Ellis had bowled seven overs for 2-15, but now his match figures were eight overs for 2-30.
Cody bowled the 44th over with Reigate still needing 28 runs to win off 12 balls. The first two balls yielded two runs before McInley got stuck in once again with two fours and two mighty sixes in consecutive balls. The sudden change in fortune had jerked the Priory home crowd back into life as they now cheered for what appeared to be a certain win.
But in the last over, bowled by Lancefield, the left-arm spinner, McInley’s pyrotechnics came to nought. Hodson had taken a single off the first ball to give McInley the strike. Following a wide ball, McInley surprisingly then took a single to give back the strike to Hodson with four balls to go and three runs still needed. Hodson was bowled and last man Ben Donovan came to the crease.
The first and only ball Donovan faced, the wicketkeeper took the ball, whipped off the bails and appealed for the stumping. Teammates waved their arms in victory, but the square leg umpire had given it not out with Donovan firmly rooted inside the crease wondering what was going on. Meanwhile McInley was sprinting down the pitch from the non-striker’s end towards Donovan’s end as Craig Short, the keeper, was sprinting in the opposite direction towards McInley’s end to run out Donovan.
And so Banstead took the honours by two runs after a quiet friendly game had erupted into a thrilling finish.