Spinners rescue East Grinstead in dramatic tie

A thrilling finish at Saint Hill saw East Grinstead and Eastbourne share an unusual tie in a game that both sides felt they should have won.

The two teams left with 15 points each after both being bowled out for 170, in a game that left Grinstead captain Alex Edwards with mixed emotions.

Having won the toss and decided to bat, Grinstead wanted to post a far more competitive total than they did on a new pitch that looked ripe for run-scoring.

But in reply they quickly managed to have Eastbourne on the rack and looked well set to finish them off until some stubborn resistance from the visiting middle order.

"We batted poorly and from 99-2 we lost six wickets in the middle inexplicably," said Edwards.

"But we still could have won it and it ended up as quite a dramatic finish for a game that was probably boring to watch, in that there were no big batting scores.

"Eastbourne did what we should have done and shut up shop. But we had a really good chance to bowl them out and at 150-9 in the context of how the game went, we thought we should have won it.

"They got themselves out of a difficult position in the end and we need to learn to do that a bit more."

East Grinstead made a fairly solid start and opener Gary Kleinveldt was unlucky to be caught behind off a miscued pull shot. Cullen Bailey (48) and Simon Williamson (28) began building a partnership after Edwards departed caught and bowled by Jordan Turner.

At 99-2 a good platform was building and Williamson had begun to show some form after a string of low scores. Eastbourne's bowlers were making little impact but their luck turned when Bailey called Williamson through for a sharp single only to see the Eastbourne skipper Mark Thomsett hit the stumps with a direct hit from point with Williamson just fractionally short .

It sparked a rather meek surrender of six East Grinstead wickets as they slumped to 139-8 and then 147-9.

Mathew Heppel batting at number eight was left 22 not out and showed the maturity that was lacking from those around him. He shared a last wicket partnership of 23 with Duncan Shoebridge that gave the East Grinstead bowlers something to bowl at.

Having only lasted 44 overs, the hosts left Eastbourne with a massive 66 overs in which to reach the target.

But the visitors' reply got off to the worst possible start with Tomsett being well caught down the leg side by keeper Adam Davies off the bowling of Will Adkin.

Eastbourne rode their luck and opener Snashall benefited the most from some streaky strokes. Tom Smith was lbw to Lewis Hatchett and Ben Brown top edged an attempted sweep from Bailey's fourth ball.

Eastbourne were in trouble at 60-4 as the hosts showed why they have one of the most effective bowling attacks in the league.

With time on their side, the Eastbourne batsmen Bradley Smith and Alex Pollard began to drop anchor and made the bowlers work hard for their wickets. The game seemed to go into stalemate until a rank long hop from Bailey was completely miss-hit to Hatchett at mid-off. Jack Heppburn joined Pollard and faced 77 balls for just 13 runs but when he was lbw to left arm spinner Craig Fowle the Eastbourne tail was left exposed.

At 151-9 East Grinstead just had to keep their cool to pull off another home victory. Spinners Bailey and Fowle were holding court but a number of difficult half-chances were not accepted.

As the required total began to creep closer both teams were on a knife edge and a great cheer went up from the Eastbourne team when two byes went through to level the scores at 170.

Last man Jordan Turner then steered a big turning leg break from Bailey straight into the hands of first slip and so the game finished as a tie.

Bailey and Fowle were outstanding for Grinstead taking seven wickets for 79 runs from 41.1 overs. East Grinstead's batsmen need to take a close look at their application at the crease if the Saint Hill club are going to turn what has been a good season into a title winning challenge.