Fuller's League 2nd XI Division One

Caterham II 218

Merrow 217-7

Caterham were involved in a thrilling draw with fourth placed Merrow.

After losing the toss Caterham were invited to take first use of a beautiful pitch and the opening partnership soon found their range against a steady Merrow attack.

They saw off the opening bowlers with a mixture a sharp running from the re-vitalised Chapman and punishment of anything loose from Richard Parrett.

The opening stand was broken with the score at 90 just after Parrett had reached his 50 when Chapman (37) was caught off the tidy Ian Bow (3-64) who soon followed up with a sharp catch off his own bowling to remove Luke Jones without scoring.

Ian Thompson soon took a liking to the surface and struck four fours in his 18 before mistiming an inswinger from Bow to leave Cats 127-3 after 32 overs.

In strode Robin Dinmore at a critical time and with Parrett they rattled up a partnership of 38 in seven overs but just as it looked like they might bat Merrow out of the game Dinmore (18) was dismissed.

Parrett continued to punish the bowling, ably supported by the tail, which allowed him to record his first league ton.

Just as Parrett (102) looked to accelerate the score in the last five overs he was unfortunate to be bowled via inside edge and pad, by Glencross (4-12) and it was left to Hiten Patel (17 not out) to steer Caterham past the 200 mark with the declaration coming off the fifth ball of the 52nd over.

The Merrow reply started disastrously as Bow hit the first ball of the innings, a full toss, straight to square leg where Jones took a sharp catch.

However, it did not take long for Giddings (48) to get the board moving and Merrow kept up with the rate.

Rhodes struck twice with the new ball removing the dangerous Giddings and then Merrow skipper Miles Truman to leave the visitors 78-3.

The fourth wicket pairing of James Bissett and Pearman (37) hit some big shots as they added 65 and kept Merrow up with the rate, however the introduction of the injured Phil Dunt who bravely got through eight overs with a calf strain and had Pearman caught superbly in the deep by Darren Smith.

Caterham lost Smith to a hamstring pull but when Dunt had the opener Bissett (40) lbw then bowled Lock (26) and removed Corning with the aid of a fine running catch at long off from Thompson it seemed that the visitors chance of victory was slipping away with 20 needed from two overs, and Dunt's last over cost just three leaving him with 4-35 to leave 17 from Hiten Patel's final over.

The equation boiled down to six off the last ball. Hurst was on strike and again he looked for the short leg side boundary and made good contact but this time it was flatter and towards Fuller at deep midwicket, the ball went into and out of Fuller's hands but it fell short of the line and went for four.