Mitcham under16s pulled off a thrilling last ball win against Old Ruts at the Green on 2nd August.

Winning the toss and batting first Mitcham struggled to score. Of the established batsmen only Faraz (22) made any runs. When the 6th wicket went down the home side had scored only 54 in the 12th over. But Ayaan, stepping up from the under13s made a cool 19* with newcomer Atif making 21. The score of 109-8 was decent but didn't look enough. Raed (2-8) was the pick of the Ruts bowlers.

In reply Shamali took two wickets in two balls in the second over to have the visitors in trouble at 4-2. But Thomas (30) and Josh (14) kept the Ruts up with the run rate. In a low scoring game one wayward over would have been enough to see Mitcham lose. But the bowlers stuck to their task and restricted the opposition to just nine boundaries in their innings with wickets falling frequently.

Shamali came back to bowl the 20th over with Ruts needing just 7 to win. Two great boundary saving stops from Mahesh and an easy run out left Ruts needing two off the final ball. But Shamali bowled a beauty to topple the timber and leave Ruts one short. He finished with 3 for 21 in his four overs.

The result was reward for much improved fielding and better all round team performance. Well done to stand-in skipper Azizullah who took 2 for 21 and rotated his seven bowlers well.

The browncaps go to Roehampton next week knowing a win could secure 3rd place.