The day of the final started with a great buzz at the ground. Stony Stratford arrived an hour before the start of the match and so did Chenies. There was an excellent crowd and the boys were all very excited about playing on the main adult square for the first time. As the visiting team Stony called at the toss and after some confusion it was decided they had won the toss. Stony first elected to bat first and then decided that they wanted to change that and wanted to bowl first. There was still heavy dew on the ground and hence it was an advantage to bowl first as the outfield would quicken up as the sun came out later.

Zac Saul and Rafe Alibhai opened the batting for us and almost immediately Rafe was injured as an inside edge ricocheted onto the side of his knee behind his pads. It was a painful blow and Rafe took some time to recover and showed real resilience as he batted on. However, his movement and running was clearly hampered by the injury, and he was bowled as a result as he struggled to move his feet as he normally would. Zac hit a couple of lovely boundaries but was caught off a delivery that reared up at him. This left us on a net score of 8 from 4 overs.

Jeevan Brar and Oscar Knight came in next and as Jeevan took strike the fielders disappeared to all parts and there was an extraordinary field setting with every fielder except the bowler and wicket-keeper positioned right back on the boundary line. This didn’t deter Jeevan and he struck 5 boundaries on his way to scoring 27 from 12 balls, and a net score of 21 from 12 balls as he was dismissed for the first time in an U11 club match this season trying to manufacture a boundary despite the field setting. Oscar batted very well as well and scored consistently to score 10 from 12 balls. There were also 3 close calls where it looked like the ball had crossed the boundary line but the fielders were scrambling and the umpires didn’t give the boundary. Their partnership added 42 in 4 overs.

Noa Fonseka and Harry Neal were our third pair and Noa started in typical big hitting fashion before being bowled and then batting sensibly. Noa scored 16 from 10 balls (net score of 10 after the wicket) and Harry batted sensibly to score 5 from 13 balls as they added 20 runs from their 4 overs. Neil Chahal and Frank Harrop were our next pair and atarted well. Neil batted consistently to score 11 from 13 balls but Frank was caught twice in the 3rd over as he pushed the ball in the air and it went to hand. They added 11 from their 4 overs. Aarav Majithia and Mayur Patel closed our innings and Aarav batted well and consistently to score 9 from 12 balls whilst Mayur defended resolutely, and they took advantage of some extras to add 21 from their 4 overs to take us to a net score of 102 and hence a pairs score of 302, which represented a good total.

As Stony came out to bat the ground was baked in sunshine and it was clear the outfield had firmed up and the ball was travelling faster. Oscar (0-10) and Noa (1-9) opened for us and did a good job, aided by a clean bowled wicket from Noa, as they restricted the opposition to 14 from the first 4 overs. Frank (0-7) and Mayur (0-14) were our next pair and restricted the opposition to 21 from their 4 overs. Neil (0-10) and Rafe were our third pair and Rafe’s wicket in the final over helped restrict them to 15 runs from 4 overs to leave them on 50 from 12 overs and requiring 53 from the remaining 8 overs. Their last 2 pairs batted consistently against a mix of bowling from Aarav (1-18 from 3 overs), Harry (1-18), Zac (0-17) and Rafe (1-21 from 3 overs). We were again hampered by injury as Rafe was not fully recovered and Aarav twisted his knee on his first delivery resulting in him being down from his normal pace. Stony still needed 19 to win from the final 2 overs and a key moment was a boundary being given which looked touch and go as Frank scrambled to keep the ball in. However, Stony scrambled through to finish on a net pairs score of 302 and tie the match.

What followed was extraordinary as it transpired that there were no clear rules on how to decide a tie. We suggested a super-over but the umpires declined. We then felt that we should win, on the basis that our score of 138-6 from 20 overs would normally beat the Stony score of 126-4 from 20 overs in any normal cricket match. However, the umpires decided that Stony should be declared the winners as they had lost 2 fewer wickets. The Chenies boys deserve huge, huge, huge credit for the gracious way that they accepted the umpires decision, which was obviously a hugely contentious call which deprived the Lions of what would would have been an immensely well deserved county title.

However, the Lions have still had an immensely successful season (please see season review here) and deserve huge congratulations.

The County Final Scorecard can be found here

Updated season stats below for the top 10 batters and bowlers playing at least 3 matches over the season:

Batting

Club Rank	Player	Runs	Balls	Wickets	Strike Rate	Average	Net Runs	Net Strike Rate
1	Jeevan	276	171	1	161.4	276.00	270	157.9
2	Zac	168	139	9	120.9	18.67	114	82.0
3	Aarav	106	123	2	86.2	53.00	94	76.4
4	Neil	132	140	10	94.3	13.20	72	51.4
5	Oscar	82	108	6	75.9	13.67	46	42.6
6	Noa	135	117	15	115.4	9.00	45	38.5
7	Mayur	20	44	1	45.5	20.00	14	31.8
8	Louisa	28	53	3	52.8	9.33	10	18.9
9	Rafe	28	71	3	39.4	9.33	10	14.1
10	James	53	88	9	60.2	5.89	-1	-1.1

Bowling

Club Rank	Player	Overs	Runs	Wickets	Average	Economy	Net Runs	Net Economy Rate
1	Aarav	26	123	13	9.46	4.73	45	1.73
2	Jeevan	16	82	9	9.11	5.13	28	1.75
3	Noa	20	97	10	9.70	4.85	37	1.85
4	Neil	22	95	9	10.56	4.32	41	1.86
5	Rafe	13	56	5	11.20	4.31	26	2.00
6	Oscar	22	97	5	19.40	4.41	67	3.05
7	Harry	20	101	4	25.25	5.05	77	3.85
8	Louisa	11	73	5	14.60	6.64	43	3.91
9	Frank	18	77	0		4.28	77	4.28
10	Zac	22	129	3	43.00	5.86	111	5.05