The Twickenham CC U9s have been on a really good run of late, but on 30 June they came up against their toughest opponent yet in unbeaten Teddington Town. They came through the test admirably (see here for the card).

Big-hitting last pair save the day
Teddington Town won the toss and opted to have a bowl. Given that skipper Harvir Ghere was going to opt to have first hit, everyone therefore got what they wanted there.

Nico Morgan got the visitors to Bushy Park off to their now traditional strong start, hitting 12 off 11 balls. Through the middle the Ts nonetheless found it increasingly difficult to find the boundary ropes. Three run outs didn't help, so when the final pair of Stan Hough and Harvir Ghere took to the wicket there was a modicum of work left to do.

And, they did that work admirably. They pulled with vigour, and both drove hard and straight. Between them as a pair they contributed in excess of 40, with Ghere notching an undefeated 18 and Hough (S) an undefeated 19.

Straight bowling the key to success
The fireworks at the end meant that Teddington Town needed 297 to win. That sort of total was certainly gettable, but Twickenham also felt that if they bowled and fielded well they'd be in with a chance.

Teddington Town ultimately lost fewer wickets than the Ts, but they also struggled to hit the fence. Austin Tilzey (0-9 off 2) and Faris Iqbal (0-6 off 2) were particularly stingy whilst Jaden Mate (1-7 off 2) and Jonty Thornton (1-8 off 2) added a couple of useful wickets into the equation.

The fielding, too, was right on the money. Paarth Vaswani stopped one tracer bullet on the boundary, and very nearly caught another missile that came in his direction at square leg. Stan Vince dived full length at another one when out at mid-wicket and very nearly took what would have been a stupendous catch.

By the time the game got to the last over Teddington Town needed 22 to win. Faaiz Asif (30) was the dangerman, but Harvir Ghere kept the ball for the most part outside off and the therefore out of Asif's hitting zone. That meant that Teddington Town ultimately closed 12 runs short of their victory target.

With Old Isleworthians already conceding the game on Sunday 7 July, that means the Ts will end their league season with 6 wins to their name and just the one defeat. A really strong performance. They do, however, have one more contest left this season - on 7 July they welcome Sheen Park to Twickenham Green in a friendly.

Great stuff everyone.