Bradford's Victory at Arundell
 
It was a warm sunny morning at Arundel on the day of the final Friday 13th August 2010. Unlucky for some! The scenery was spectacular. The final between Bradford and Swansea was due to start at 9.45am. The two captains went out onto the beautiful Arundel pitch to toss the coin. Unfortunately the Sky TV was not there as their cameras were out of action being serviced, so disappointingly there was no coverage. A real shame because what was about to follow wouldn’t have looked out of place on any TV screen. On this occasion unfortunately there was no Mark Nicholas or Geoffrey Boycott to welcome them or to do any pitch inspections or post toss interviews. Elliot Richardson the Captain of Bradford won the toss. The decision was not made immediately but after a brief discussion with the coach Shiv Krishan, Elliot decided he wanted to put Swansea in and chase their score. This was based on the fact that in the earlier rounds they had batted second and chased the opposition totals. Elliot felt he did not want to change a successful strategy that had got them through to the final.
 
The two openers for Swansea got off to steady start played and missed a few times but looked solid against two excellent spells of opening bowling from Rahat Shah, 4 over for 15 runs and Mathew Keeton 5 over’s for 20. Both bowlers were unlucky having beaten the bat on several occasions. Not having got any early wickets a change was required and Cameron Bell came on from the top end replacing Rahat and he immediately got into his stride bowling a good line and length and had an excellent four over spell going for 16 runs. Elliot the Captain came on from the bottom end and bowled some good deliveries with the occasional loose ball, but by this time the two Swansea openers were well into their stride and gaining confidence and were playing with ease. A change was required to see if the batsmen’s concentration could be broken and the leg spinner Jayan Mistry was brought into the attack. In between some good deliveries which troubled the batsmen there was the odd loose ball and the batsmen were managing to work him well for singles.

At the top end Josh Smith the off spinner was brought into action and in his first over he trapped the dangerous looking Swansea opener A Ace on 40 -LBW, a vital wicket at the time as they had put on a 72 run opening partnership and Bradford desperately needed a break through. His score of 40 included 7 boundaries and he batted for nearly an hour. At the bottom end another off spinner Wasim Bashir was brought into the attack, therefore now Bradford had a two pronged spin attack which was to prove masterly in slowing down the Swansea batsmen and the run rate. The two spinners continued to bowl a 16 over spell which between them only yielded 53 runs for a total of 7 wickets. It seemed as though Swansea had no real answer to the spin attack and struggled to get runs. In his fourth over Josh then got another vital breakthrough with the other Swansea opener B Francis hitting out to the mid wicket boundary with Cameron Bell taking an excellent catch right on the line. He made it look easy even though it went a long distance.

The two openers were now out of the way but the score had gone onto 96 and Bradford needed to tighten their grip which they then did. Wasim continued to plug away from one end and in the fifth over Josh from the other end grabbed another wicket with an excellent catch by Reece Simpson. Three down and within a couple of balls the keeper Price was then caught out brilliantly by Saim Butt at deepish mid on. The ball went like a bullet to Saim’s right but some how he managed to pluck it out the air and take an excellent catch. Saim seemed just as stunned as the outgoing batsman was. Four down for 109 a little panic set in the Swansea camp and suddenly they weren’t looking as confident. Bradford tightened the screw and the pressure got to Swansea when trying to pinch a quick single G Donald was brilliantly run out. Swansea were now under a lot pressure at 121 for 5. Then one run later Josh struck again bowling J Davies for 10, making it 122 for 6. This was Josh’s fifth wicket giving him excellent figures of 8 overs 1 maiden 27 runs 5 wickets. His final over being a maiden. An amazing spell of bowling to swing the match back to Bradford.

Bradford were beginning to get on top but just as they thought the game was going there way S Nicholas was putting up some real resistance and a fighting spirit made 42 not out which included 5 fours and a six. The next wicket did not fall until the score was on 147, therefore a 25 run partnership had been made and Bradford needed the breakthrough with Wasim clean bowling W Hughes. Bradford still needed to keep the runs down at this stage as S Nicholas was batting very well and looking dangerous. Wasim got another breakthrough by getting the number 9 A Rahimi LBW. This made it 156 for 8 but runs still kept coming from Swansea and Bradford’s fielding was just beginning to lose it’s focus and became a little ragged. Swansea managed to take the score to 182 for 9. This was probably 20 runs or more than Bradford would have expected. The last 8 overs from Swansea yielded 62 runs.Wides throughout the innings was a problem with 2 runs for each wide except the last over costing Bradford an additional 21 runs taking the extras in total to 25. Nevertheless Bradford were positive and always felt as though they could chase this total.

The Bradford innings commenced well with a couple of excellent square cuts by Callum Murgatroyd that raced to the boundary of the pace bowling of G Donald. Then in the third over Swansea struck with the wicket of Saim Butt, nicking one swinging away from his bat bowled by the left armer S Nicholas. 13 for 1 Captain Elliot Richardson came in played some aggressive strokes hitting 2 boundaries in his brief innings of 9. He was just getting settled when disaster  struck when the Swansea  leg spinner came on who bowled a gentle full toss which Elliot in two minds lobbed the most simplest of catches to mid wicket. It was a gift as he was just getting in his stride having taken the score to 41. Elliot couldn’t believe what he’d just done but as we know in cricket how many times have we seen it where it’s the bad ball that’s gets you out. Seven runs later a further blow as Callum Murgatroyd one of the back bones of the Bradford team was bowled to an innocuous straight delivery. That one could only be put down to a slight loss of concentration. Callum was beginning to get set for another long innings and scored 19 runs including 3 fours.The score now 48 for 3 Bradford were in a spot of trouble and it was important at that stage no further wickets fell.