in national finals.
Yorkshire Overs 50s won their semi-final encounter with Essex in thrilling circumstances to reach the final of the ECB 50+ County Championship. The side travel to Leicester this Sunday (10th September) for the final to take on defending Champions Leicestershire & Rutland hopeful of recapturing the trophy they last won in 2015.
The sides semi-final was dramatic game against a strong Essex side held at Elland Cricket Club. Steve Wales the Yorkshire skipper won the toss and elected to bat.The home side made a solid start with openers Kevin Bradley (51)and Nick Gaywood (57) putting on 97 for the first wicket. When both were dismissed in reasonably quick succession a period of consolidation ensued against tight bowling from Ian Pont (Ex Essex CC)and Nigel Holmes who recorded 2/44 and 3/32 respectively in their 9 overs.Good contributions from the middle order of Jahangir (17), Frank (11) and Burden (17) enabled Yorkshire to reach 201/7 at the end of their allotted overs.
In reply one of the danger men, Pont, was caught brilliantly by Booth for 19 off the bowling of Mark Wilson who recorded excellent figures of 1/16 from his 9 overs including 5 maidens. Essex consolidated with opener Mel Hussain and Neil Braithwaite who put on 92 for the 2nd wicket before Braithwaite was bowled by Jahangir for 60. It was now down to Hussain to manage the batting with the Essex side looking on course for victory. Going into the final over Essex needed 4 to tie and 5 to win with 5 wickets in hand. A dramatic final over saw Yorkshire bower Dave Burden get a wicket 1st ball; the new batsman get 3 off the next ball; Burden then trapped Hussain LBW off the 3rd ball: the 4th ball Essex tried a suicide single resulting in a run out to leave Essex needing two off the last two balls. The 5th ball was a dot and the Essex batsmen could only manage a bye off the last ball. With the game tied, the result when Yorkshire's way by virtue of the home side having lost 1 less wicket than Essex!
A confident Yorkshire side now face a trip to Kibworth CC (Fleckney Road, Kibworth Leicester LE8 0HG)in Leicester for the final (11am start)to hopefully bring the trophy home!