Binfield Cricket Club's 2nd XI drew at home with Hurst Rangers CC on Saturday 8 August 2026, finishing on 250 for 5 - just three runs short of victory - in a Thames Valley Cricket League (TVCL) Division 3A fixture, after captain Mikey Allan-Canty's 67 had chased down all but the last of Hurst Rangers' 252, built around Karun Pathak's 72.

Three runs. When the last over of a long, warm day at Binfield had been bowled, three runs was all that separated the 2nd XI from a famous chase - and, wickets in hand and the light still good, one could not help feeling the game finished a shade too soon for the home side. A draw it was, but a thrilling one, and Binfield the happier of the two teams to shake hands on it.

Winning the toss, Binfield chose to field, and for a while had Hurst Rangers in difficulty - Rob Pigden reducing them to 29 for 2 with the new ball. But Karun Pathak would not be shifted. His 72 from 99 balls, nine crisp fours in it, anchored the visitors through the middle overs, and useful hands from Pavan Nargund (34), Salar Hashmi (27) and an unbeaten 32 from 24 balls by Amit Puri carried Hurst Rangers to 252 for 9. Pigden was the pick of Binfield's attack with 4 for 52, Tom Nower and Ollie Cummings taking two apiece, and Pathak himself was eventually run out - Pigden's throw - for a fine 72.

Two hundred and fifty-three to win, then, and Binfield set about it with real intent. Mikey Allan-Canty, the captain, led from the very front: 67 of the most positive runs of the day, keeping the required rate honest and the scoreboard always ticking. Around him the innings never quite broke free, for Hurst Rangers' Suhas Ganjare bowled beautifully - 4 for 49 from a full fifteen-over spell, a shade over three an over, one of them a maiden in which not a run was scored - and it was his control as much as anything that kept the chase on a knife-edge.

It came down, as the best run chases do, to the closing overs. Binfield needed a gettable few from the last, had the wickets to go for them, and simply ran out of deliveries - 250 for 5 at the death, three short of the 252 Hurst Rangers had made and three short of the win. So very nearly, and what a watch it was.

The draw keeps Binfield sixth in Division 3A on 213 points, in a congested middle of the table where a win of this shape would have counted for a great deal. Generous applause too for Hurst Rangers' Karun Pathak, whose 72 was the innings that made a match of it, and for umpires Paul Morgan and Jon Odey, who stood through a full and absorbing day. This being a home fixture, the whole thing was filmed by Frogbox - the full match is embedded below for those who would like to relive those closing overs.