WHITBURN claimed a dramatic victory off the penultimate ball of Saturday's Warmseal Durham Senior League clash with South Hetton to make it three wins in three days.
Runs were hard to come by at Hetton as the home side took their maximum allocation of 55 overs to post a score of 152-9.
The Hetton batsmen had trouble dealing with Whitburn's professional Lyndsay Cullen.
The Western Australian claimed the wic
ket of former Burnmoor batsman Neil Young, and completed a 13-over spell, conceding only 19 runs.
This left the Villagers with 40 overs to chase down their target.
When the last hour was called, the Villagers had reached 60 with Shields, Ayre and Cullen back in the pavilion.
And when a further three wickets fell in consecutive overs to take the score to 76-6 with 15 overs remaining, the home side began to sniff victory.
However, skipper David Bell and Paul Cook steadied the ship before Cook edged a delivery from Pendlington and was caught behind, which brought Andy Turns to the wicket.
With two overs to go, the Universal Sealants-sponsored side required 26 runs for victory, and the game looked set for a draw.
However, Turns and Bell had other ideas. They both hit Davidson for six off his final over, leaving the Villagers with 10 runs to win.
Turns claimed two off each of the first two balls of Pendlington's over, then played an audacious scoop shot to fine leg for four.
He then pierced the field to hit the boundary that claimed an unlikely win, with Bell on 37 and Turns 26.
This followed two victories in cup competitions.
On Thursday, Whitburn made light work of Ushaw Moor in the Clavring.
They only required 15 overs to reach their target of 116, with Lyndsay Cullen hitting four sixes and six fours in his score of 68.
It was a similar story at Marsden on Friday night when Cullen (46 not out) and Neil Ayre (43 not out) helped the Villagers to a 10-wicket victory with six and a half overs to spare in the Armbrister.
The Second XI made it a double over South Hetton on Saturday, thanks to a remarkable batting display from youngsters Craig Henderson (146 not out) and Jake Fowler (78 not out).
Chasing a daunting 246-6 declared, the pair put on an unbroken 207 for the second wicket to set up a well-deserved victory.
The full article contains 412 words and appears in n/a newspaper.
