Sussex Retain Cup After Astonishing Run-fest

Sussex Retain Cup After Astonishing Run-fest

On Saturday 5 September Sussex Sharks Visually Impaired XI hosted Northamptonshire Steelbacks (Northants) at the beautiful County Ground in Hove. This was the third time the sides had met in the final of the BCEW Primary Club Heindrich Swanepoel Memorial Cup in the last 4 years and expectations for a good match were high.

Dan Field won the toss for the VI Sharks and asked David Howells and his Northants team mates to have a bat.

Northants started strongly with boundaries coming regularly before Bilal Akhtar was caught at point to give Alex Towers the first of his 2 wickets. The second wicket fell at 123, and this brought Asif Ali to the crease who smashed 47 off just 27 balls, when he was run out attempting a risky second run the score had raced on to 287. At the other end David Howells compiled an astonishing innings. He carried his bat for a Cup record 223 not out, hitting 33 x fours and 3 x sixes, facing just 130 balls. The Northants total of 324 was also a record, surpassing the 322 that Sussex had scored at the same venue in the 2023 Final.

For Sussex to have any chance at all it felt like they would have to get off to a flying start, but Northants had other ideas, at 5 overs the Sharks were languishing on 19-2 and with the required rate rocketing, Northants had been 49-0 at the same stage. This brought together Callum Weir and Dan Field who put together an incredible stand of 312 to bring the Sharks home. Callum’s innings of 106 not out had two halves, the first circumspect, scoring at less than a run a ball to get to 50 and then powering on for his maiden century in blind cricket. Callum’s unbeaten 106 off 81 balls included 16 x fours and one six. 

At the other end Dan was struggling with an achillies injury so decided he would deal in boundaries, his 183 not out included 16 x fours and 12 x maximums as he brutalised the Northants bowlers. The final remarkable statistic is that the Sharks got home with 4.2 overs to spare.

The umpires and scorers had the tough job of allocating the man of the match awards, Callum was awarded the partially sighted player as his fielding had also saved a ton of runs. It had been a very difficult game for the totally blind players with not a single run made or catch taken but Dave Daniels 6 overs went for just 43 which were the second most economical of any bowler on the day and fitting that on a batter’s paradise a bowler would make a real difference.

At the end there was thanks to the Primary Club, without whom the game could not function. Massive thanks to Sussex Cricket for hosting again at short notice and providing a fabulous venue for such a prestigious game.

For Northants the season is over, but the Sharks must regroup and go again in two weeks when they face Metro, Kent and Cheshire at the BCEW T20 Finals Day in Wolverhampton, to see if they can finally complete that elusive treble. 

Full scorecard can be viewed here, and the match programme can be viewed here.

Match report courtesy of Ian ‘Tiny’ Morris.