RACHEL’S Talybont sealed their second win in as many weeks in the West Wales Conference by beating Commoners by five wickets in a thriller at the Geufron.

Batting first, Commoners had posted a challenging total of 187 for 8, with captain Rakesh Bhatia leading the way with 80, but Talybont reached their target for the loss of five wickets, with Ben Harper being on 90 not out when the winning runs were scored, with five wickets to spare.

On an overcast day, Talybont captain Sojan Varghese elected to bowl, and Commoners captain Rakesh Bhatia and Neil Stent opened their innings and put together a 43 run partnership, before Stent (15) was bowled by Philip Abraham.

James Rees came in and played a watchful innings of 35 before he was excellently caught by Abraham off his own bowling. Rain interrupted play a couple of times, but Bhatia kept going, before he was bowled by Mathew Novak for 80 runs.

Mathew Novak was the pick of the bowlers, claiming three important wickets in his allotted nine overs. Philip Abraham also bowled well and took two wickets, whilst Joseff Joshi and Dave Barrow, who was called in to bowl for the injured Graison John, also took one wicket each.

Despite wickets falling at regular intervals, Commoners managed to put together a total of 187 runs on the board.

In reply, Rachel’s Talybont had started slowly, despite Commoners being without frontline seemers, and they lost Dave Barrow (11), Mathew Novak (4) and Philip Abraham (9) in quick succession.

While the wickets were falling at one end, Ben Harper kept his focus and played patiently, and after 19 overs Rachel’s were 65 for the loss of 3 wickets.

Sojan Varghese joined Harper in the middle and both batted well to put together a valuable partnership of 110 runs until Varghese was run out for 54 runs.

At this point, Talybont required only 11 runs in 3.3 overs to secure the victory.

In the end, Olly Smith hit the winning run with 4 balls to spare, and Harper stayed until the end, unbeaten on 90 runs.