Horsham's ecstatic eight-wicket win after Ifield give them a scare

Michael Munday with 4-24 and Joe Ludlow’s 51 not out were the stand-out displays for Horsham in the Gray-Nicholls T20 Cup win.

They booked their spot in the third round where they will face a trip to Bognor on June 5.

It looked as though it would be a walk in the park for the hosts as they won the toss and put in Ifield to bat.

The Crawley side collapsed to 32-6 as Munday worked his usual magic, before a lower-order resistance where Pratik Patel (64*) and Joe Smith (26*) boosted them to 127-6 in their 20 overs.

In reply, despite the early loss of Tom Johnson (10), Ludlow continued where he left off last week as he and Michael Thornely (59) put on 113 for the second wicket.

With Thornely gone in the penultimate over, captain James Johnson (2*) helped see them home with 128-2 in 18.4 overs.

Skipper James Johnson said: “It was a good start, but I did not think they would get to 127. We had them right down the pump, when a couple of lads came in and hit big, they had a bit of gamble and it paid off.

“They got a really decent score. Because our outfield is so slow, unless you hit sixes you don’t get many boundaries, so 126 was worth about 140.

“I can’t really say we made many mistakes in the field and nothing was really going wrong with the ball.

“Tom(Johnson) hit a quick ten and then Michael went in and him and Joe batted really nicely and did not look like getting out.

“All credit to Ifield as they managed to squeeze the run rate up to eight an over and it looked in the balance for a bit.

“We did have a lot in the tank and batting come so wasn’t too worried, but was concerned slightly.”