Overstone Park U19’s couldn’t follow up on their County triumph two weeks ago as they stumbled to a 37 run defeat in the U19 Regional Final against Attenborough CC.
Earlier in the day, the side had to overcome Grantham CC in the semi-final, to reach the final, a stage in which no other U19 side from Northamptonshire had reached before.
Overstone won the toss and elected to bowl and quickly made an opening breakthrough as Archie Dunkley removed Usman Minhas for just 6.
Grantham worked their way to 75-3 with Qundeel Haider hitting four sixes to reach 35 off just 17 deliveries. Grantham finished their 100 ball innings on 140-8, with Benjamin Sales the pick of the Overstone bowlers, bowling 20 balls for just 16 runs and with 3 wickets.
Overstone’s chase was spearheaded by Joe Sterling, who hit four 4s and four 6 on his way to 50 from 22 balls. Kshatri and Krish Bhatt scored 29 and 18 respectively to see Overstone over the line, with the side reaching the 141 run target with nine balls to spare and five wickets in hand.
In the final, Overstone once again won the toss and elected to bowl first.
Overstone got off to a strong start as Archie Dunkley removed Attenborough opener Jude Noble early on to leave the batting side 2-1.
Strong innings from Lucas Steinford (61) and Adi Badge (29) helped Attenborough finish on 127-6 off their 100 balls. Archie Dunkley and Justin Murphy were the pick of the bowlers for Overstone, taking two wickets each.
Overstone made a positive start to their run chase and the match was finely poised with Overstone 53-3, but bad light and some rain took the players off for a brief delay. It appeared that the delay came at the wrong time for Overstone, as the side lost five wickets for just 11 runs.
The batting side never recovered, and Overstone were bowled out for 90. The U19 side fell 37 runs short of the target to put an end to their Regional trophy hopes.