Captain Pete Foster lost the toss and Uppingham chose to bat first on a used pitch. Alex Ashwin and Chris Logan took the new ball but some good batting from the Uppingham openers, who took advantage of extra gaps in the field left by a late arrival, meant neither were able to make the breakthrough. Ashwin was replaced by Gareth Hook who looked to have got the first scalp of the evening only to be put down on the boundary by Hugo Bell. After Bell’s blunder he then came on to bowl to try and make amends, which he did, this time with roles reversed and Hook taking a diving catch. An over later Hook got his reward by getting the dangerous Sam Hodson caught at midweek by Dan Costello. Bell then continued his good spell by picking up two more wickets in his next two overs to finish with figures 3 for 17, leaving the hosts 45 for 4 at the halfway mark. Some tidy bowling from Stuart Biggs and Mo Azhar, both picking up a wicket a piece and finishing with identical figures of 1 for 14 off 3 overs meant the visitors were going to do well to reach a score of 100 on an ever-wearing pitch. A couple of late boundaries and some good running between the wickets for the last few overs meant that Uppingham managed to just achieve three figures finishing on exactly 100.

With only 101 required off 20, Burghley’s chase couldn’t have got off to a much worse start with both James Laud and Logan falling in the first over without troubling the scorer, to the left arm spin of Scott Green. Costello hit a glorious cover drive, but two balls later got caught, leaving the Bears 5 for 3. Ashwin then joined Foster at the crease as they tried to rebuild, the pair put on 20 together before Ashwin was adjudged LBW off the bowling of Green. Bell’s stay at the crease was short and sweet, hitting two fours before being caught at point on the third attempt by the fielder. Foster continued to make slow and steady progress towards the target with Ahsan Azhar as his partner but another ball that stopped in the pitch slightly meant that another partner for Foster was coming to the crease in the form of Hook. Similar to Bell, Hook’s innings had two beautiful shots for 4, but he then became the 7th batsmen in the Burghley innings to only make single figures. Back-to-back sixes for Foster in the 13th over pushed the score on but with the bears faltering at 69 for 7, still needing 32, the victory was still a long way off. Biggs’ first ball saw him hit a powerful cut shot to the fence and this gave the pair some confidence heading into the final 6 overs needing 28 to win. The 16th over saw another couple of maximums from Foster and an over yielding 16 runs, getting to within 5 runs of the win. Biggs finished the chase off in the 17th over with a handy 11* alongside the skipper who finished 53*.

A hard-fought win for the Bears means that the next round (Quarter Final) will be away to Peterborough Town on Monday 10th June.

This match was sponsored by Trust My Group.