Match Centre

Vikings Vs Royals

Vale Vikings go two for two beating Tewkesbury Royals in a epic encounter at Bourton Vale Cricket Club.

Week two of the VPL has arrived and the pick of the fixtures this week was to be found at Bourton Vale Cricket Club. Vale Vikings debutants to the league and buoyed from their opening win against defending champions Dumbleton Dynamite hosted Tewkesbury Royals who also won their opening fixture and look the team to beat this year. 

With the welcome addition of Brisket bros serving up some tasty burgers and fries, and a lovely evenings sun Bourton Vale was the perfect place to be to watch some high quality Tuesday night T20 cricket. With DJ Tom Arkell playing the tunes everything we want the VCPT20 to be was on show.

Both squads were at nearly full strength and both the Royals and the Vikings were able to call upon South African Professional players in Josh Richards and Musa Twala. Vikings skipper Darrell Williams won the toss and elected to bat first. Orange cap holder Ollie Whiteley opened up with Vikings overseas Musa Twala. This pair look a formidable opening partnership and the Vikings flew out of the blocks putting on 115 for the first wicket in only 11 overs. Both players looked in great form with Whiteley particularly elegant playing proper cricket shots and Twala hitting some outrageous maximums with most memorable being a paddle sweep which disappeared into the car park. 

A small boundary, good batting and the new pink ball was always going to be hard for the Royals to keep the scoring down but they were poor in the field especially in the first 10 with a number of misfields which didn't help the cause. Experienced spinner Wade Risdale trapped Whiteley LBW and then bowled Viking's number 3 Oliver Lockey in his next over to halt the carnage. A few overs later Leg spinner Alex Oliver then got the key wicket of Twala also LBW for 62. To their credit the Royals fought back into the contest and the Vikings middle order struggled to assert the dominance of the opening pair. At the end of the first innings the Vikings closed on 183 a very good score but the general feeling amongst the Vikings fans was they should of have got 200 and the Royals powerful batting line up had a good chance. 

Royals opened the batting with their pro Josh Richards and James Whitmore. The Royals got off to a solid start taking 34 from the first 3 overs. But in the 4th over Liam Webb got two wickets, Whitmore and the number 3 Josh Barnes both from excellent catches at deep square leg from Lysander Tarrant. Royals captain and James brother Louis Whitmore carried on the momentum with Richards and the Royals looked well placed on 86-2 off 8 overs. However wickets in these games are so important and Louis was out stumped after a sharp piece of work from Twala off the bowling of Shepherd when Whitmore's foot was in the air. Looked a very good decision from umpire Tim Williams. Next over the key wicket of Josh Richards was taken as he was bowled trying to reverse sweep Darrell Williams for a excellent 56.

The Royals always kept themselves up with the rate and Tom Stevens rallied the troops with a 21 ball 32 however they continued losing wickets. Max Shepherd a purple hat contender took 4 wickets in the game taking his tally for the season too 8. With 3 overs to go Bourton only needed 21 but only had two wickets remaining. The Vikings held their nerve and bowled some tight death overs to put the game beyond doubt. In the end it was fitting that Will Faulkner yorked Alex Oliver to bowl the Royals out for 168, 15 short of the target. 

This was a really high quality and exciting game of cricket between two teams you would back to be there in the finals of the competition. The Vale Vikings were outstanding and were fantastic hosts. The Royals played there part too and could have easily won on another day. The Vale Vikings also currently hold the hattrick on player awards with Ollie Whiteley currently our orange cap holder with most runs, Max Shepherd our purple hat with most wickets and Musa Twala is currently the best fielder and is sitting in second on the run charts. We look forward to seeing how far both these teams can go and thank them for the entertainment of Tuesday night.