Away at Wimblington’s Parkfield ground, stand-in skipper Rajiv won the toss, and opted to make first use of the artificial pitch. He & Jack opened, safely and sensibly negotiating a tight first spell from Wimblington to reach 29-0 from the first 10.
The first change of bowlers saw an acceleration, with Rajiv finding the boundary – including an excellent pull for 6 into the long grass – while Jack cleverly and elegantly pushed into gaps to rotate the strike The only drama was the odd bit of slightly dodgy running. Rajiv was the first to 50 (off 66 balls), before falling two balls later LBW.
This brought Sudhir to the crease, who provided a further acceleration, scoring 21 at better than a run a ball before also falling LBW to the opposition captain with the score at 125 in the 26th over. Brett continued Sudhir’s quick-scoring work – with Jack now also regularly finding the boundary, and most other balls being pushed into the gaps, the two rapidly built a partnership of 78 in just 9 overs, during which Jack reached a well deserved 50. He eventually fell in the 35th to a little tickle to the keeper off the returning opening bowler for a superb 74 (off 108), with Brett following shortly afterwards for 33 (from 32) as part of a middle order collapse that saw the Wimblington opening bowlers take 5-13 in the final 5.2 overs. Still, the team scored an excellent 216-8.

With Jack having a bit of a rest after his batting exploits, Karl opened with Jonathan as the chase began. Wimblington started steadily, reaching 39 without loss from the first 10, with tight and probing lines from Karl, who was unlucky as a fine nick to the keeper went down.
The dangerous number two now had his eye in, though, and accelerated – taking three successive boundaries from Jonathan’s 6th over. That continued as Achintya replaced Jonathan and later Mo replaced Karl, as the opening partnership (which also included a runner) built dangerously with a mix of excellent strokes (including two superb sixes over long-off), and brave, rapid running which put pressure on the field.
As the total progressed well over the 100 mark, a breakthrough was needed. William found it in his first over, as he induced a one handed shot from the opposition captain to loop to dad Brett behind the stumps. 132-1 after 24. The dangerous number two was still there, now well past 50, and while finding boundaries less regularly, he and the number three continued to push the runs.
By the final drinks break, with 10 overs remaining Wimblington were firm favourites, requiring just 42 runs with 9 wickets in hand. With faces gloomy, something was required, and Karl’s peptalk seemed to work – the fielding noticeably became tighter, 2s became 1s, 1s became dots, a nice diving stop from Jonathan at point prevented a potential boundary.
By now Jack and Todd had been brought on to bowl, and the batsman struggled to get them away, trying to advance at Todd, but the ball constantly going through to the keeper. The good humoured No 2 had by now reached a (fully deserved) century, but then Jack made the crucial breakthrough, inducing a top edge from him that sailed high to the fine leg boundary, where Achintya took an excellent composed catch just inside of the rope.
There was still work to be done, with just 32 required off 7, however wickets now started to come as the new batsmen tried to get the ball away – Jack bowling the number three, then Sudhir and Brett combined for an excellent run-out as the batsmen attempted an all-run four.
By the time the final two overs were reached, Wimblington needed 16. Mo took the first, conceding a pair of 2s and bowling the No 6, leaving specialist death-bowler Sudhir 12 to defend, a task he performed expertly conceding merely a leg bye and a run. Wimblingdon 206 for 5, Cambourne win by 10 runs. Phew!

An excellent performance to steal the win that looked to be getting away from us, and special credit to the four youngsters – Jack’s batting and bowling, Achintya’s crucial catch, and William and Todd who combined to concede just 30 runs and three boundaries in 8 overs whilst bowling to well-set batsmen in the second half of the innings – critical contributions without which the game would have been lost. Full credit too to Wimblington for both their excellent cricket, and their friendly nature and great sportsmanship throughout, it was a great game to be a part of.

Report by Jon Gadsby

MOTM:
Jack Ranganathan – 74 (108 balls, seven 4s), 5-1-21-2

Notable Performances:
Rajiv Ranganathan – 53 (68 balls, six 4s, one 6)
Brett Logue – 33 (32 balls, four 4s), 1 catch, run out
Sudhir Shivananjappa – 21 (18 balls, four 4s), 1-0-1-0, run out
Karl Summers – 0*, 8-2-24-0
William Logue – 1*, 4-0-16-1
Todd Bailey – 2, 4-0-14-0

Miscellaneous:
5 out of the 10 teams in Junior 5 North made 200+ this week
This was the threes first 200+ total since back to back games against Saffron Walden & Elmdon in June 2015