Manny and young guns see Cavs home in nail-biter

This was a real nail-biter. The Cavs lost the toss and had to field in the ridiculously hot May weather. They made a great start courtesy of a firecracker opening spell from Callum Gurbutt. He claimed both openers, though the first wicket came via a bizarre run out. The batter’s mistimed drive looped over the bowler, hit the stumps and bounced back to Callum who then threw down the other stumps as, in a weird panic, the batsmen had decided to take a run.

After this great start the 3rd wicket pair of K. Saeed (as always) and G. Hilton repaired the damage and started to take the game to the Cavs. The pitch was a strange one, with slow and irregular bounce making free stroke-play difficult - so it was disappointing to find the oppo on 160 for 3 with overs to spare. But, not for the last time that day, Manoj came to the rescue. He removed Saeed for 75 and the rest of the batsmen could not get going against him. He took for 3 for 13 as Paddington fell in a heap, losing their last seven wickets for 30 runs.

Chris Morgan snaffled 3 for 8 off just 11 balls, as every new batsman tried to hit out before sizing up the pitch. The innings ended as it started with a terrific Gurbutt run out, this time it was Ross’ turn with a very cool swoop and direct hit. The oppo had left 5 overs unused, which was crucial error. Their total of 190 appeared well within the reach of an in-form Cavs batting line-up, but with Paddington you never know what their bowlers are going to do.

And so it proved, after a good start (thanks to Ross’ 31), the Cavs collapsed from 86 for 2 to 118 for 7 against a right dolly mixture set of bowlers. Paddington swapped their bowlers around constantly, with some very capable, and other less so, but both kinds finding help from the pitch and taking wickets. It was down to Manoj to save the day again. He marched out at number 9 to partner u-14 Morgan Stannard (in his senior debut).

He then calmly and brutally took the bowling apart. With a slap and a bang it looked like he had taken us to the victory, but then with 10 runs required he was gone for 47. There was still time for more heroics. U-13 Will Brewis joined his fellow colt Morgan at the crease and they had three overs left to score the runs. No panic was evident in their play, no manic swipes or crazy running. They just tried to get a bat on the ball and run like hell.

It went down to 5 off the last over and it was Morgan who pushed the ball through the covers to run the three required off the penultimate ball. He had scored a brilliant 21* and won the game on debut. Magical stuff.