Oliver Howick was superb in hitting the last three balls for 14 runs which gave the vine victory and dented Bexley’s title hopes.
Sevenoaks won the toss and elected to field first and started brilliantly with opening bowler Tom Parsons only conceding six runs off his first seven overs with a crucial wicket as well. Karl Pearson was also very economical at the other end and Bexley only had 40 runs on the board after 22 overs.
Lorne Burns was introduced into the attack with Tom Coldman and both spinners proved very hard to get away on what was thought to be a very good Bexley wicket. Some good bowling from Burns and a tight finish from Bowden and Parsons meant that Bexley were reduced to 154 off the 50 overs.
The Vine struggled against a good opening Bexley attack losing a couple of early wickets before Adam Rouse and Harrison Smyth steadied the ship moving the score up to 80-2. However a quick collapse after solid bowling from the Bexley spinners meant that Sevenoaks went from 80-2 to 110-7 with a lot of overs left. The key man was Howick who looked about the only comfortable batsman out there for the Vine.
Howick hit some monster shots before being joined by Pearson who couldn’t get off strike against some tight bowling. Pearson was caught in the deep with three balls left leaving the Vine needing 12 off three. Howick slapped the first one over mid off for four, a fine knick to third man brought out the second boundary before hitting the opening bowler over square leg for a huge six meaning Sevenoaks won by 1 wicket and closed the gap on the teams above them.
