Binfield Cricket Club's 5th XI lost by three wickets away at Beaconsfield CC on Saturday 25 July 2026, recovering from 1 for 2 inside two overs to post 222 for 8 through half-centuries from Richerd Cooper (63) and James Bennett (61), only for James Kelly's 78 to settle a Thames Valley Cricket League (TVCL) Division 9D fixture with an over to spare.

Four balls. That is how long it took for Binfield's 5th XI to lose two wickets after choosing to bat at Beaconsfield - Rupert Warren caught off the very first delivery he faced, Evie Folwell bowled three balls later, and the scoreboard reading a deeply unpromising 1 for 2. What followed was a rebuild of real character.

Richerd Cooper and James Bennett came together inside the first over and were still there, together, twenty overs later. Their third-wicket stand of 126 was more than half the eventual total and, in a match this close, was very nearly the whole story. Both men made their runs the same way: Cooper 63 from 70 balls with ten fours, Bennett 61 from 76 with ten fours, and not a single six between them. Binfield's innings contained twenty-eight fours and no sixes at all - 112 of their runs off the bat came in boundaries, all of them along the ground.

The tail wagged usefully. Rakesh Sugumar made a brisk 24, Ollie Brasier 20, and Monty Mitchell was unbeaten on 15 as Binfield used all forty overs to reach 222 for 8. Swapnil Manchanda was the best of the Beaconsfield attack with 3 for 35, while Geoff Watts' eight overs for 27 were the most economical of the innings.

Two hundred and twenty-three to win, and Beaconsfield had a man determined to get them. James Kelly made 78 from 62 balls with ten fours and three sixes, and he was involved in the first four partnerships of the innings - 46, 36, 43 and 8 - carrying the chase from the first over until he was bowled at 133 for 4. It was, quite simply, the innings of the match.

That it stayed a contest after he went is to Binfield's credit. Kamal Gupta was outstanding, eight overs for 24 with a maiden at three an over, and it was he who bowled Kelly. Beaconsfield still needed to get from 169 for 5 to the target, and wickets at 177 and 196 kept the thing alive - Jack Peedell was one of them, caught off Archie Orr - but Swapnil Manchanda and Gabriel Kunicki, unbeaten on 24 and 15, saw them home with an over unused.

Eleven points from a game that was in the balance until the closing overs, and the 5th XI sit fourth in Division 9D on 158. To be one for two after four balls and still be asking questions of the opposition in the thirty-ninth over is not a bad afternoon's work at all - and Beaconsfield, who had to be very good to win it, will know that better than anyone.