A win for Newborough
Newborough are the 2023 champions of the Peterborough Midweek League John Bigham Plate Final after a dramatic match against AK11 last night. This match saw two teams who are used to reaching midweek finals. Newborough won the Killingworth Cup Final beating Sheikh in 2022 while AK11 (who played as Strikers in 2022) reached the John Bigham Plate Final last year before losing to Orton Park.
Orton Park Cricket Club hosted the final and AK11 won the toss and had no hesitation in bowling first. 3 early wickets had Newborough in trouble, but they had recovered due to a partnership of 36 (which ended up being the best of the final) from talented teenagers Matthew Mills and George Woods. However, when they both fell quickly with 28 and 20 respectively, 67-3 quickly became 73-7 and the innings never recovered ending at 101 all out from 18.1 overs. For AK the damage was done by the spinners with Amir Yaseen 3-3 from 2.1 overs, Ansar Hussain 2-11 from 4 overs and Mohammed Zahid Nadeem 2-18 from his 4 overs.
In reply, AK11 struggled to get going due to the nagging line and length accuracy of Tom Olley and Joe Mills. Olley bowled 4 overs straight through only conceding 10 runs while Mills’s first over went for 5 and then followed it up with an excellent maiden. At 24-1 from 8 overs AK11 had to up the rate, however confusion and panic set in as 3 batsmen were run out and one was stumped. The ground fielding from Newborough was excellent with slow bowlers Shiv Teekasingh 3-18 from 3 overs and 3-21 from 4 overs from Gangadeep Singh undermining the reply. Seamer Joe Mills returned taking the last wicket as David Cooper took a skyer on the deep mid-wicket boundary to remove Mohammed Rizwan who top scored with 20 to see Newborough victorious by 17 runs with 9 balls remaining.
A low scoring, tight edgy final saw Newborough victorious for the first time in their history in the John Bigham Plate Final while AK were left to rue a second consecutive final defeat.
JOHN BIGHAM PLATE FINAL – WEDNESDAY 19TH JULY 2023 – HELD AT ORTON PARK CRICKET CLUB:
Newborough 101 all out from 18.1 overs.
Matthew Mills 28
George Woods 20
Amir Yaseen 3-3
Ansar Hussain 2-11
Zahid Nadeem 2-18
AK11 84 all out from 18.3 overs.
Mohammed Rizwan 20
Shiv Teekasingh 3-18
Gangadeep Singh 3-21