The 2s pulled off a comfortable win in their T20 quarter final over Sale on Thursday night, and they will be in good heart when they head to finals day. And so they should be, after proving they can defend 151 for the second time in two cup games, the 35 run margin of victory this time a fair reflection of the superiority the 2s ultimately brought to bear during a match which looked intriguingly poised for a time but strangely petered out.

Choosing to bat first, Hash and Jack soon had the runs flowing, three lovely sixes between them, but Hash’s dismissal from the last ball of the powerplay was the first of an increasingly impressive array of catches taken in the deep by the Sale team, six in total as the Dids innings felt very stop-start. Tom was brilliantly caught just when he was finding his range with two huge consecutive bongers, then three wickets in four overs left Dids 94-5 in the 14th. When Jason fell to another excellent catch at deep square leg it left the 2s 129-6 after 18, with Sale clearly (and understandably) feeling chipper.

Chris Elsden then hit probably the biggest six of the night, clearing long on at the Parrs Wood end with a magnificent stroke, and that was a significant blow as 22 came off the last two and Dids, looking at one stage as if they might not make 140, closed on 151-8, still gettable but more than Sale should have been chasing.

No matter, however, as the early part of the Sale reply looked promising for the visitors, some clean hits, Dids not getting the breakthrough and spurning a golden chance to run out one of the openers when they were both momentarily at the same end of the pitch. However, Connor De’Ath, who survived that one, was run out two overs later, an excellent direct hit from Jason at extra cover getting the vital breakthrough. I was right behind the line of the throw and it looked good from there – as it does on the YouTube stream too btw.

That was 30-1 in the 5th. Enter Mike Bishop, Sale 2s most in-form batsman in 2021, but he became part of a curious passage of play as Sale got bogged down. Bishop took 7 balls to get off the mark, and between him and Ben Watkin there were 15 dots from the 23 balls their partnership faced, taking almost 4 overs to add just 11 runs.

In total, the Sale batters dotted 28 balls in the next 7.4 overs, adding only 34 runs, which left them looking at 83 off the last 8 for victory. This pressure reflects really well on the Dids bowlers and the fielding, which (apart from a dropped catch which was rather Ken Shabby) was very impressive. There were only 2 overs of the 20 where Sale managed 10 runs or more (compared to 6 by Dids) and in the end their chase disappointingly ran out of ideas, the required rate ballooning.

These days it is almost unheard of for a solo scorer to be offered any sort of fee from the side without one, but even then, a ‘thanks for scoring’ for me, or any sort of acknowledgment of the work I’d done figuring out who was fielding where, or who was bowling, would have been appreciated, and just added to the anti-climactic feel of the Sale innings as it played out.

Anyway, great credit to the 2s for another excellent display, and do look at the Flikr photos Dunc has publicised that were taken last night by a pro photographer, there are some excellent snaps in there. The 2s can now look forward to finals day (along with Romiley, Toft and Grappenhall) with every confidence. An early guess is the second Sunday in August as the date but we will await confirmation of this.