St Michael’s stormed into the quarter finals of the Garnet Plate with an exciting 5 wicket victory over Obelisk. The win was even more sweet as it was the same opponents that dumped St Michael’s out of the Garnet Cup 12 months earlier.

Obelisk batted first, and threw the bat at everything. Boundaries came aplenty, many of them through third man. But Martin Baker struck back to snagging Russell for 12 in the second over. Andy Marnewick them removed the other opener Smith, and Baker then bowled Robinson in the third over. Runs on the board, but at the cost of 3 wickets.

The rest of the Obelisk innings was not as cavalier, runs coming steadily, with Malc Swann turned back the years to grab a superb 4 for 19 off 4 overs to restrict the late onslaught. The final total of 104 was challenging, but not insurmountable.

St Michael’s started their reply cautiously. Dale Harrison was bowled early on, and when Andy Marnewick and Matt Collier were out cheaply, the winning post seemed a long way off. But a resolute innings by Vince Cross started the fight back. He survived an early drop to score 30, including a huge six over mid wicket. When he was out, Dave Tebbutt took over, scoring runs at will.

With 2 overs to go, 36 runs were required in the last 4 overs, then 14 off the last 2. The penultimate over was tight until Tebbutt struck a 6 to reduce the target to less than a run a ball. A 4 early on in the last over saw only 1 to win off the last 7 balls, and victory was duly won with a scrambled run with 4 balls left.

The Twin Towers o the County Ground are now in sight. All that stands between St Michael’s and the final are Monks Park II, who are a better team than their bottom of the league placing would suggest. The semi final takes place at the Racecourse on Wednesday 3 July, starting at 6:15.