The Colts’ eventual total of 3 for 201 proved to be too hard for the Tavern team to reach.

Tavern captain Nigel Sharman said it was a perfect day for fast cricket.

“The Colts won the toss and elected to bat and with the temperature gauge nudging 30 degrees we knew we were in for some hot cricket,” he said.

“The Colts certainly came to the batting crease in an aggressive mind set with Dean Swaffer hitting out early and putting the ball across the boundary multiple times in the first three overs. 

“We got some early reward though when Swaffer's opening partner Ryan Parker was caught out in the covers by youngster Rakesh Biniwal in the third over.

“Things started to look ominous for us though when Ian Slapp came to the crease and started a solid partnership with Swaffer and the Colts started piling the runs on to the scoreboard.”

Sharman said a number of catches were on offer for Tavern but were dropped which proved costly.

“Like previous games, the ball slipped through our hands and that cost us dearly,” he said.

“Slapp and Swaffer made the most of the dropped catches and punished our bowling with some big hitting boundaries. 

“But one too many big hits brought Swaffer unstuck in the 14th over when he was caught in the deep going for another boundary, but the Colts still looked strong on 114 runs with six overs remaining.” 

The Colts 20 overs came to an end and they were in command with 201 runs with only three wickets lost with Ian Slapp not out with a high score of 88 runs ( 3 sixes and 9 fours ), Dean Swaffer was the other top scorer with 65 runs ( 10 fours ).

Wicket takers for Tavern were Brendon Smith 1-28, Nigel Sharman 1-36 and Charlie McShane 1-47.

Sharman said he knew the Tavern had their work cut out for them requiring at least 11 runs per over to have a chance of running down Colts’ total.

“Things didn’t look good for us with our first wicket falling in the third over,” he said. 

“But our opening batsmen Dustin Pocock wasn't backing down and he picked the run rate up with a couple of quick boundaries.

“Rakesh Biniwal (13) also assisted Pocock with runs and pushed the score to 100, but when he was dismissed in the 12th over Tavern were 4 for 100 and a long way off Colts’ total of 201.”

Sharman said that from that stage onward his team could have just played the game out but decided to try to score the 102 runs in the 8 overs remaining to steal an unlikely win.

“We managed to get to  7 for 159, which was not enough but a good effort none the less, ” he said.