Sway Surge to Stone cup Final

STONE CUP SEMI FINAL

SWAY    130 - 8 FAWLEY   83

Adam Clark's Sway side have made it into the final of the Stone couple for a second year running by beating Fawley in a nail-biting match at the Waterside Sports Ground on Monday 11^th July. The Sway skipper won the toss and elected to bat on what was a superb batting track, however Sway were in struggled early on with the accurate and sharp bounce from the tall Fawley opener D. Morgan. The bounce proved too much for Hall (8) who was out caught hooking to the legside, and when Rubycz (7) was caught behind off Morgan, Sway were in need of a partnership to repair the early damage. Steadman and Atapattu showed good intent and were timing the ball nicely when a break down in communication left Atapattu stranded down the middle of the wicket, giving Fawley an open invitation to run the Sway dangerman out for just 6. Kev Glass (3) was dismissed cheaply against his old club and it looked as if Sway would struggle to reach three figures. However, Steadman (54) played a superb innings which helped to rebuild the Sway scoreboard. R. Clark (15) scratched around for runs but supported Steadman well by running hard between the wickets, putting pressure on the Fawley fielders, and forced errors when boundaries were hard to come by. After the dismissal of R. Clark and Steadman, How was run out by the Sway skipper for a duck which brought young Woodfine (14) to the crease, who played some exceptional shots and even hit a six off of the second to last ball of the innings to give Sway momentum going into the turnaround.

 

After initial trouble, Sway were confident that 130 was very defendable in the worsening light. They were given a rather nasty shock early on when the big Fawley opener J. Ford (25) powered the ball to the boundary off of Rob Steadman and Sam Richards, seemingly taking the game away from Sway early on. But then Richards produced a clever piece of bowling, digging it in short, giving Ford little time to adjust and he just managed to spoon it up to Hall at Mid wicket for a simple catch. The more defensive Strether was dismissed in the very same over by Richards for just 2 runs. This gave Sway a ray of hope and they dug deep, showing tremendous character and calm under pressure, both with the ball and in the field. The ever reliable Nilantha Atapattu and Will Woodfine came on and bowled superbly, with good line, length and variation, exerting pressure on the Fawley batsman, who continued to fall at regular intervals.

 

Sway will play Burley in the final next Friday the 22^nd of July at Fernhill Sports Ground in New Milton. If their previous encounter in the league is anything to go by, it will be an exciting clash, with plenty of local rivalry and Sway CC urge all whom are able to come down to the event, support the team, and hopefully see them lift the trophy for a second successive year.