TWO wickets in the final over by Jack O’Connell steered Lydney to a three-run win at Cirencester.
The home side needed five off the 45th over to take the Gloucestershire Cricket League Division One match.
But O’Connell only conceded a leg bye and was on target with the third and sixth deliveries to see Cirencester 172 all out and a haul of five wickets for the paceman.
Lydney elected to bat and weathered a shaky patch in the middle where they lost three wickets for nine runs.
Wicketkeeper Matthew Aldridge was top scorer with 36 not out including a six off the last delivery in a 13-run final over with Paul Morris .
Jake Bonser hit seven fours for 33 and O’Connell hit two sixes and seven fours as he amassed 28 in 16 balls.
The visitors finished on 175-9 and Cirencester were on the back foot at 30-3.
O’Connell claimed his first wicket with the third ball of the third over with Bonset taking a catch to dismiss Declan Rugg for 7-1.
A catch by Aldridge off the bowling of Tom Morris made it 12-2 with the first delivery of the fourth.
Aldridge took a catch off O’Connell at the start of the ninth to make it 30-3.
A fourth wicket stand of 44 ended when Ben Ferguson bowled Haris Walpola.
Aldridge made a stumping off Ferguson and Tom Morris took a catch off namesake Paul to make it 97-6.
The next two wickets took the home side to 160-8 with 13 deliveries remaining.
Cirencester took 10 off the penultimate over to set up the dramatic finale.
O’Connell sent in a dot ball followed by a leg bye.
He bowled Alex Tatara-Mills with the next and denied Tom Harvey anything from the following pair before bowling him with the last ball.






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