Ealing (203-8) beat Sunbury (202 all out) by 2 wickets

Ealing completed another outstanding season with an epic two-wicket victory over Sunbury in the final of the Evening Standard Challenge Trophy, writes Bob Fisher.

It was an emotional finale for Ian Blanchett - playing his last game for the club. He struck an undefeated 45 as the hosts edged home at a packed Corfton Road.

Playing in their fifth final during the 17 years of the competition - and their fourth in as many years - Ealing became the first club to win the trophy in successive years.

And with the newspaper having decided not to continue sponsoring the competition, they became the proud owners of the prestigious silver trophy.

The game also proved to be a memorable swansong for skipper Luke Stoughton and Blanchett. For Stoughton, this was his final game in charge after three wonderful seasons and it was Blanchett's last game for the club before his imminent return to Australia.

The game swung from one side to the other and the final outcome was not decided until the third ball of the 100th and final over of the match.

Ignoring the fact that they had won all five of their previous games in the competition by batting first, Stoughton was hopeful of making full use of the rain affected-wicket and elected to field first on winning the toss.

It was a decision he might well have had second thoughts about, such was the comfortable start made by the Sunbury opening pair John Maunders and Toby Roland-Jones.

Maunders, fresh from the 62 he made during the week for Essex playing against Northamptonshire in the championship, was in particularly fine form as he and his partner reached 135 without loss after 29 overs.

At this stage, it looked likely that Ealing would be facing a target of something in excess of 250, but the introduction of off-spinner Sameer Patel brought them the breakthrough they were looking for as RolandJones holed out on the long off boundary to Tahir Afridi for a well made 60.

Two balls later, Patel had Adam London lbw and had soon bowled Middlesex player David Nash too.

When Steve Atherton had the Sunbury skipper Olly Roland-Jones caught behind the wicket by Ned Eckersley, the Sunbury innings had slumped to 157-4.

Patel dismissed Charlie Holcom and keeper Stuart Poynter in quick succession to finish with the remarkable figures of 5-28 in his allotted 10 overs.

The re-introduction of Chris Peploe saw the departure of Maunders, caught at cover by David Holt for a well made 102, and a final over featuring a run out and two wickets off the final two balls of the innings saw Sunbury all out for 202. They lost all 10 of their wickets in the final 21 overs for just 77 runs.

Ealing's innings got off to a poor start when Patel was well caught by John Lyons running back from cover in the second over, but Simon Hawk was joined by Peploe and the pair lifted the score up to 69 in the next 10 overs.

But the score fell away to 75-4 as Peploe - stumped after slipping as he went for a big hit - Hawk and then Eckersley departed, the latter needlessly run out after a mix up with Rajesh Rao.

Rao was bowled with the score at 91, leaving Ealing with 112 runs to win at exactly four an over.

Stoughton and David Holt carefully added 25 in the next 11 overs before Holt skied a simple catch to Nash at short fine leg.

Ian Blanchett joined the skipper with the run rate now up to almost five an over and the duo maintained the run rate until the score reached 155 when Stoughton was yorked after making 35.

When big-hitting Leigh Parry succumbed to the first ball he received in the next over, Ealing were at 156-8 and Sunbury must have felt that they had one hand on the trophy.

Blanchett was joined by opening bowler Tahir Afridi with 57 needed from nine overs. Three runs came off each of the next two overs before Blanchett brought the excitement in the ground to fever pitch as he hit Adam Stanier for six high over the sightscreen into Woodville Gardens.

With every run being greeted by cheers by the Ealing supporters, the 46th and 47th over proved decisive as Blanchett andAfridi took 20 runs from them, leaving Ealing needing nine for victory from the last three overs.

Now not needing to play any big shots, sensible running between the two batsmen narrowed the target down to three from the last over and three singles from the first three balls saw them home.

The bowler of the match award went to Sameer Patel and Maunders won the batsman of the match award but in a very sporting gesture passed the award over to Blanchett in recognition of his match-winning innings of 45 not out.