Middlesex Under 18s faced Yorkshire in the County Cup Final at Kibworth CC on Sunday.
In warm sunny conditions, our opponents won the toss and elected to bat first but found themselves in early trouble when the opening bowling pair of Naavya Sharma and Sam Graham removed the top order early to leave Yorkshire 50 for 4 in the 11th over.
Desperately in need of a partnership, Yorkshire then found one, and the fifth wicket would not arrive for Middlesex until the 47th over, as Yorkshire battled back in some style. A wonderful partnership of 167 was built between Jack Redshaw and wicket keeper Jawad Akhtar that gave Yorkshire a competitive total to defend.
Akhtar faced 106 balls for his 69 and found the boundary six times in an innings of patience and hard graft, running between the wickets and regularly rotating the strike.
Redshaw scored a fantastic century, reaching 103 from 129 deliveries in a knock that included 10 four's and two sixes. A vital knock for his side when they needed it most.
The centurion fell to the bowling of Seb Morgan who also bowled Akhtar to finish with figures of 2 for 50. The returning Sharma picked up his third wicket as well as a run out to bring Middlesex back into the game in the final few overs.
Yorkshire ended on 247 for 8 from their 50 overs. A very competitive score but one that was chaseable. Middlesex would need to bat very well to secure the trophy. Sharma finished as the pick of the Middlesex bowlers, with figures of 3 for 52, with Graham finishing with 2 for 24
The opening pair of Dylan Rawal and James Isbell made a fluent start before the former fell at the end of the fourth over for 22.
This bought a quick flurry of wickets for paceman Bradley Sylvester who also picked up the big wickets of Aaryan Sawant (0) and Isbell for 17, leaving Middlesex 49-3 inside 10 overs.
The first and second change bowlers of Joshua Hen-Boisen (2-51) and Charlie Taylor (3-22) continued the pressure, not allowing Middlesex to find the boundary easily and picking up wickets in the middle overs.
With the score 8-130 in the 29th over, the game looked all but finished but for a 71 run partnership between Eddie Campion and Samarjeet Singh (31).
Captain Campion would go on to reach a half century and Middlesex found themselves in with an outside chance of victory at 201-8 with six overs remaining.
With 46 runs to win at a run rate of around seven, Singh was run out to leave Middlesex with just one wicket remaining.
Campion was the last man out, caught looking for the boundary off the bowling of Charlie Taylor for a well made 58 but ending Middlesex's chances of the trophy.
211 all out from 47.1 overs meant Yorkshire won the final by 36 runs. A really good effort from the Under 18s throughout the competition but we fell just short at the final hurdle.
Congratulations to Yorkshire on taking home the trophy.
A scorecard from the game can be found here.
