2016 England Champs Review
Last Man Stands England Finals
Saturday 24th- Sunday 25th September 2016
Northamptonshire played host to the 2016 Last Man Stands UK Finals on September 24th and 25th as the 15 best teams in the UK competed for the coveted prize, a place at the World Finals in Cape Town.
Following the official draw conducted by Saj Mahmood in the week leading up to the event the teams arrived on Saturday morning to compete in their group matches. World number 1 team FJT Stallions of London played Sporting Sharks in their opening game at Mears Ashby CC and lived up to their reputation with a comfortable 120 run victory. Their second match was against unbeaten Ackworth CC from Yorkshire. Batting first FJT were dismissed for 149 but a tight bowling display saw them restrict the Yorkshiremen to 131 off their 20 over and take a place in the draw for Sunday's quarter finals.
In pool B Pak Lions Brighton opened their account with a bonus point victory over Grewel Club of Walsall chasing 102 in 14 overs. Pukhtoonkhwa Zalmi then repeated this feat against the same opposition as they dismissed Grewel for 43. This set up a match for a place in the quarter finals between Zalmi and Lions. Pak Lions batted first and could only muster 132-4. In reply Zalmi scored quickly thanks to I.Nazir (42 off 20 balls) and they achieved another bonus point victory and a place in the quarter finals.
Pool C featured two of the furthest travelling teams, Butch it sunlight from the Wirral took on Chakwal Stars in the first game. Batting first the stars made 164 off their 20 overs. In reply Sunlight lost crucial early wickets and despite a valiant 60n.o from Neilson-Scott they fell 30 runs short. They then took on the Cullompton Hawks from Devon in a must win game. Cullompton's B Parr had other ideas as he produced amazing figures of 5-11 to restrict Butch it to just 89 runs. Cullompton chased the total with ease to put them top of the group. Cullompton again fielded first and Parr again did the damage with 3-23 as Chakwal were dismissed for 103 of 18 overs. Chakwal bowled well taking 4 wickets by the half way stage but it was J Grandfield 47n.o who guided his team home.
In Pool 4 it was an all London affair in the first game, The North London Muslims were defeated by the Vacuum Cleaners after a fine bowling display defending only 114. In the second match the cleaners put the Northampton Indians to the sword with P Cairns (51*), D Kirschberg (50*) and B Rae (49*) making contributions. In reply the N.Indians limped to 116 as the cleaners secured their place in the quarters. In the final game the NL Muslims batted first and scored a mammoth 208 off their 20 overs, A Marapa (50*) and A Hasna (50*) scoring quick runs. In reply they bowled with discipline to record a 70 run victory and a spot in the qualifier matches.
In the final pool AJ sports defeated hosts Burton Latimer CC with ease as they posted 199, with Sakib Bhatti (49* off 20) adding late runs quickly. In reply Latimer could only muster 102 and crucially gave AJ Sports the bonus points. In the second game Oakwood CC of Leeds defeated AJ Sports however AJ Sports picked up the bonus points which secured their place in the top two of the pool. In the final game Burton Latimer had to win and pick up a bonus point to have any chance of qualifying. They bowled first and dismissed Oakwood for 131. In reply they had to reach the target by the 16th over. Needing 6 runs off the 15th over they reached the target with a ball to spare securing a spot in the 5 over eliminator match.
Following the final group matches the 4 best runner up teams competed in a 5 over quarter final qualifying match. The North London Muslims defeated Burton Latimer CC and Chakwal Stars defeated Pak Lions Brighton to take their places in Sundays quarter final draw.
The Sunday quarter finals began with an all London match as FJT Stallions took on North London Muslims. Batting first FJT started positively with R Hussain (55 off 30) and A Hussain (53 off 36) scoring quickly to help them post a total of 168. In reply some tight bowling from B Mahmood and S Khan prevented any momentum being built and the NL Muslims reached 110 all out.
Quarter final two saw Zalmi take on AJ Sports. Zalmi batted first and scored 145 off their 20 overs, K Hussain with a destructive innings of 53 off just 23 balls. A close chase ensued with AJ Sports keeping up with the run rate but wickets falling at regular intervals. R Singh (63 runs) was left as the last man standing with 5 required off the last over. Singh was dismissed off the 3rd ball with Zalmi taking the victory.
Quarter final three was another all London affair as Chakwal Stars run out victors against The Vacuum Cleaners. Batting first Chakwal made 169-3 off their 20 thanks to contributions from A Aumar and D Singh (both with 50's). In reply PJ Cairns was again in great form for the Cleaners but ran out of partners as they were dismissed for 137, Cairns finishing on 66*.
The final quarter final was a one sided match as Yorkshire's Ackworth made 161 off their 20 overs, Chris Holliday 66 off 33 including a home run 12. In reply the Cullompton Hawks couldn't recreate Saturday's form and they slumped to 81 all out with the wickets shared around for the Ackworth bowlers.
In the afternoon both semi finals took place, Zalmi vs FJT, Ackworth vs Chakwal Stars.
On pitch one Chakwal Stars batted first and scored 157 off their 20 overs, A Chaudhary (51* off 34) batted well to give his team a more than reasonable total to defend. In reply Holliday again lead from the front scoring 50 off just 18 balls playing shots all around the ground and finding the gaps with ease. Once retired A Rollin took over and continued the assault with 53* to take Ackworth past the total with an over to spare and a spot in their first UK Finals.
Pitch two saw FJT Stallions take on Zalmi. FJT batted first on the smaller of the two pitches and made 169 off their 20 overs, B Mahmood and A Khawaja both with well made 50's off 30 balls each. Zalmi looking for an upset went out hard and T Malik reached his 50* in double quick time putting his side ahead of the rate. M Nazim continued the onslaught and when Malik returned to the crease he provided a great partner providing the strike to Malik as he took his side past the target with an over to spare finishing on 69 off only 36 balls and giving Zalmi victory over the World Number 1 team and a place in the Final.
Following 23 great matches played in fantastic spirit it all came down to the Grand Final, Ackworth vs Pukhtoonkhwa Zalmi.
Captain Holiday won the toss and elected to bat and make first use of what looked another excellent Burton Latimer pitch. Opening the batting himself he made yet another 50, this time off 22 balls. It was an innings oozing class and skill with a number of ramp shots and strokes through the covers. L Hyde (50* off 27) came to the crease and continued where his captain left off scoring boundaries and rotating the strike with J. Seddon making it difficult for the Zalmi bowlers to settle into any kind of rhythem. M Zahid bowled some tight overs but the boundaries continued to come for Ackworth. A late flurry from C Fisher (46 off 29) took Ackworth to 194-2, the second highest score of the weekend.
In reply Zalmi faced a mammoth task and this was made even harder following two quick wickets in the first 3 overs, one a direct hit run out from the boundary. At 40-3 K Hussain started to mount a fighback scoring some boundaries but Ackworth continued to pick up wickets through K Holliday and K McEntire and none of the Zalmi batsmen could get away with only Hussain scoring more than 20 runs. The final wicket was taken in the 15th over with a catch in the deep sparking joyous scenes.
Ackworth were presented the shield and awarded 300 Race to Cape Town Points ($3000) which will take them to the 2017 World Championships. Chris Holliday was awarded the man of the match following his superb innings which set the tone for his team.
Highlights from the finals day are available on our youtube channel - www.youtube.com/user/LastManStands101 and facebook page www.facebook.com/lastmanstands