The Benwell Hill under 15s won the Vitality County Cup for the first time last night with a tense 6 run victory over local rivals South North at Denton Bank.
While both teams were missing key players, they were evenly matched and the game was no less exciting. The Hill started well after being put in with Freddie McGregor scoring a fluent 26 before acting skipper Abu Siddique battled to an unbeaten 22 to guide the Hill to 99 for 6 after 20 overs.
Luke Neillis took 2 early wickets, including the key one of South North skipper Trudy Johnson to keep the visitors reply in check, then Fardin Bhuiyan and Sam Rowe took 2 wickets each before they needed 10 to win from the last over. Up stepped Ibrahim Tayyab who bowled a superb final over conceding just 3 runs before the celebrations could begin.
As well as the honour of winning the County Cup, we now move on to play Grange CC in Edinburgh this Sunday as the competition moves forward to play Scotland's regional winners.
The scorecard is available here https://benwellhill.play-cricket.com/website/results/4918071
