WITH THE end of the season in sight, Cardiff Men’s first team kept up their recent revival, as they managed to secure a nail-biting, two-run win over Southampton.
Cardiff were without wicket-keeper Justin Yau and Captain Ben Orr so Dean Cox filled in for a day in which Cardiff needed a win to maintain their comfortable position within the league.
Cox won the toss on a scorching hot day and showed no hesitation in batting first. Southampton’s opening bowlers struggled to find their rhythm early on and despite the early loss of Cox, Cardiff raced to 67-1 off 12 overs. Matt Jones (35) looked to consolidate the score but Cardiff started to lose wickets regularly.
Southampton’s two spinners were proving extremely difficult to get away and only Josh Bess with a quick-fire 21 looked to be on top of the bowling.
But Jones and Bess both fell within a short period of time and Cardiff suffered another mini-collapse, reduced from 122-4 to 144-8, as they seemed to struggle under the pressure to post a competitive score.
Adam Bennett finally came to Cardiff’s rescue with a vital 39 and managed to bring Cardiff up to 177 all out.
While this score fell well short of the kind of total Cardiff had hoped to achieve, they remained resilient and harbored realistic hopes of being able to defend it.
The Southampton openers started solidly, if not spectacularly, and reached 52-0 off 16 overs. Cardiff had kept it tight but were desperate for wickets to get them back into the game.
Scott Edmed rose to the occasion on his BUSA first team debut. He bowled excellently and, combined with some very tight spells from Bennett, (1-27) sparked a Southampton collapse.
When Edmed picked up the vital wicket of a hard-hitting West Indian for 22, Southampton were 92-6 off 33 overs and Cardiff sensed victory.
But Southampton’s Anderson (51) seemed reluctant to give up so easily and along with some admirable support from the tail, edged Southampton closer and closer to the victory line. Edmed picked up three more wickets to finish with an exceptional figure of 6-31 but coming into the penultimate over Southampton only needed three runs to win with one wicket in hand.
Cardiff looked dead and buried but Josh Bess refused to accept defeat and after 5 dot balls the pressure told. Anderson was bowled trying to work a single to keep the strike, giving Cardiff a breathtaking victory by only two runs.
Bess, Edmed and a good overall bowling and fielding performance had given Cardiff this vital win and they can now look forward to facing local rivals UWIC next week, knowing that a win could well consign their arch-rivals to relegation.
Cardiff 2’s have still yet to finish a game this season after Glamorgan 1’s gave them a walkover. They now have games coming up against Exeter 2’s and 3’s, which, weather permitting, will almost certainly be on.
