Binfield Cricket Club's Women's 2nd XI fell five runs short away at Maidenhead & Bray CC on Sunday 12 July in the Home Counties Women's Cricket League Division 3 A, a last-over defeat in baking heat in which Amelia Hart's maiden five-wicket haul (5 for 23) and captain Jessica Jackson's 51 were not quite enough to overhaul a target of 139.

Five runs is a cruelly small distance to fall short by, and this was a game Binfield's Women's 2nd XI will feel got away from them, out in the field on a baking afternoon with the mercury up around 33 degrees. Having won the toss and chosen to field, they set about the home top order with a splendid opening partnership from Lisa Jones and Hollie Gamble, who bowled with real discipline and gave the batters almost nothing to hit - Jones conceding just 17 from four overs, Gamble 21 from five. There were close calls aplenty, and the batters simply could not get them away; but for a fast, sun-baked outfield that lent the occasional well-timed stroke its full value, the squeeze might have told even harder.

That pressure laid the perfect foundation for Amelia Hart, who came on and was quite wonderfully destructive, tearing out the top order with a maiden five-wicket haul of 5 for 23 - the first five wickets of the innings, every one of them hers. Behind the stumps the gloves were shared handsomely: Grace Gamble kept for the opening dozen overs before Katie Satchell took over, freeing Grace to bowl her own two overs later on, and between them the two keepers held a catch apiece off Hart's bowling. For a good while it was threatening to become a rout.

That Maidenhead & Bray recovered at all was down to Riya Srinivas, who came in with the innings in disarray and made an unbeaten 52, adding a stand with Tilly Lawrence (19) that dragged the total to a defendable 138 for 6 from 25 overs. It was a rescue of real character, and it would prove the difference between the sides.

Amelia Hart with the match ball after her maiden five-wicket haul (5 for 23) — awarded, as tradition dictates, to mark the occasion.

Binfield's reply began in the very best order. Jessica Jackson, opening with Katie Satchell, was in glorious touch early, finding the boundary at will and racing the chase along; the worm bears her out, Binfield's line running above the home side's for most of the innings at a fine strike rate, the whole side chipping in behind their captain. Satchell gave sound support before a flurry of wickets - Srinivas and Lawrence comfortably the pick of the home attack - briefly threatened to unpick everything.

Jessica Jackson · 51

Hollie Gamble then came aboard and made a busy 25, and with Jackson still anchored at the other end the target stayed within touching distance to the very death. But Srinivas was not finished: she returned to take 3 for 22 with the ball and had a hand in two run-outs besides, and in a match decided by five runs those two run-outs - of Grace Gamble and Michelle Slaughter - were exactly the sort of small calamities that settle tight afternoons.

It went to the final over. Jackson, who had held the innings together from the very first ball, clipped a four to leave just six runs needed from five - and for a heartbeat the pressure lifted. But Binfield could not keep their last wickets intact, and 133 all out left them five agonising runs shy of a win that had been there for the taking. My dear old things, there was so much to admire in defeat. Hart's five-for was the first of her career, in only her second match of the season, and duly earned her the match ball as tradition demands; Jackson's fifty was her fourth of a summer in which she averages a towering 72.5; and the club's own Chris Jones stood umpire. Maidenhead & Bray, propping up the table, will have treasured this one - and Binfield, fourth and still handily placed, will rue five little runs for a while yet.