SLOUGH Warriors have been crowned South East Champions of the 2018 Last Man Stands Finals and progressed into the National finals in South London on September 22-23.

The South East regional finals were held at Burnham Cricket Club on Sunday when teams competed in a fast-paced eight-a-side tournament.

Teams from Milton Keynes, Essex, Aylesbury and Slough competed for a place in the National Finals, plus a £10,000 trip to the World Champions in Australia.

The final was a tense all-Slough affair between the Warriors and Tigers.

Slough Warriors were invited to bat first and started well as openers Saharan John (49) and Anas Dad (48) put on 97 runs in the first 10 overs, which put them in a commanding position.

The Tigers fought back in the second-half of the innings as Saharan and Anas fell in quick succession, allowing some pressure to be applied on the new batsman with fine bowling led by Waqas Khan.

The Warriors middle order was stifled and the team were restricted to 174-6.

Slough Tigers’ innings followed a similar patter as a great opening partnership put them in a strong position to chase the target down for victory.

However, the game changed when the first wicket fell. The boundaries suddenly dried up and the run rate increased quickly.

The Warriors grew in confident and started to take regular wickets.

With the scoreboard pressure increasing by the ball, it became too much for the Tigers and they finished 15 runs short on 159-6.

Sahaan John returned figures of 3-12 from his four overs, which along with 49 runs, he won the man-of-the-match award.

It has been a great season of Last Man Stands cricket in Slough with over 250 matches taking place and 29 teams involved.

Since its inception in 2014, over 1,400 players in Slough have taken part in the various leagues and next year looks set to be even bigger.

All abilities are welcome and there are leagues to all days and standards of teams.

If you would like to enter the Last Man Stands Cricket League in 2019 visit lastmanstands.com/play-cricket/slough-and-reading

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