Watford Town secured the Herts T20 Trophy in dramatic style at Redbourn on Sunday 21 August. Needing to score an unlikely 182 to overhaul Letchworth’s challenging total, we reached the target in the last over, with the last two batters at the crease. It capped a great day for the club, after a convincing victory over host club Redbourn, in the earlier semi-final.
Letchworth had shown their quality in the first semi-final, crushing Berkhamsted by nine wickets. Their overseas star, Christy O’Brien, had top-scored with 69 in that match and the Kiwi was soon into his stride in the final, putting on 90 runs with David Sprittles for the 2nd wicket, in just 10 overs.
When O’Brien fell, to a great catch by Gaurav Shinagare, he had smashed 81, including eight 4s and five 6s. The run-rate slowed with his departure but with Sprittles reaching 51 not out, the Watford batters still faced the challenge of scoring at more than nine runs an over to secure the silverware.
Openers Farhan Hussain and Asad Sajjad took the fight to Letchworth in dramatic fashion, blazing 69 off the first four overs to give their team the belief that victory was possible. After Farhan went for 23, off just 11 balls, three of the next four batsman fell without scoring but Asad batted brilliantly, scoring 49 off 24 balls. When he was 7th out, we still needed 75 to win, although with 10 overs in hand, there was plenty of time.
Syed Ali (33 off 21 balls) and Haseeb Khan (22 off 15 balls) took the team 48 runs closer to their target and within sight of victory. Syed’s effort was remarkable, batting through the pain of a serious hand injury, suffered when fielding.
The fall of the ninth wicket, with the score on 174, set up the dramatic conclusion and at the start of the 20th and final over we needed just one run to win. Off the first ball, Billy Sheikh drove the ball straight at the mid-off fielder, who inexplicably dropped the catch, allowing the single which sealed victory, sparking a mini pitch invasion by our triumphant team.
The absence of the trophy meant no presentation ceremony and a slight anti-climax but the silverware will be collected at a later date, when the celebrations can be continued.
For the scorecard, visit https://watfordtown.play-cricket.com/website/results/5491506
The semi-final scorecard is available at https://watfordtown.play-cricket.com/website/results/5491413