Burnham clinch Julian Cup as Rafiq's hat-trick turns tide against Maidenhead & Bray

Burnham have lifted the Julian Cup once again after defeating pre-match favourites Maidenhead & Bray by 47 runs, with the final turning on one sensational over bowled by Yaqoot Rafiq.

Having won the toss and batted first, Burnham had put down a solid, but not spectacular total of 155-all-out from the 15 (eight ball) overs.

In reply, Bray were struggling to get out of third gear as they attempted to chase a total they felt was within their grasp, however, Rafiq changed the entire complexion of the final when he took three wickets in three balls, while Bray’s George Parsons, who was going along nicely at 15 not out, was also forced to retire at the end of the same over.

Rafiq’s hat-trick put Burnham firmly in the driving seat, with their skipper Mohammed Asif admitting that after that ‘it was only a matter of time’ before they got their hands on the trophy.

To their credit, Bray did manage to bat out their 15 overs to finish on 108-9, however, most spectators had known the final was over as a contest long before the fat lady started singing.

Reflecting on their victory, Asif said: “We didn’t start off too well. But in the back end, everyone chipped in with 10s and 20s,” said Asif.

“The main thing though is that we managed to bat the overs. It was a solid score on this wicket, and I thought we should be able to defend it if we played well. Yaqoot’s hat-trick was obviously the turning point and yeah, it’s a brilliant win.

“We always used to win the Julian Cup Plate as Burnham 2nds, but we haven’t won this one for a while now and it’s good to have the cup back in our hands.

“Some of these guys have played 3s and 4s. It was a good win at the end of the day, and we kept our heads. It’s brilliant to win it again.

“Yaqoot, a brilliant hat-trick and that changed the game. One of their other batsmen then had to come out and then after that, it was just a matter of time.

“They beat us in the group stage and put on a big score of 230-odd, so in a sense it’s good to win. We knew it would be hard though.”

Handing out the trophies and medals afterwards, organiser Tom Mellor, said Rafiq’s hat-trick had made it very easy for him to name this year’s player of the match.

There were some other notable contributions though, with Burnham teammate Donald McDonald making 24, on a night when few of the batsmen really cut loose at the crease.

So, for the second season running, Bray finished on the losing side in the cup final, after going down to Boyne Hill in very similar circumstances.

They’ve found the pressure of chasing too much to handle on both occasions, however, Wednesday’s defeat was the more galling of the two, as captain Shabbir Mookhtiar felt his side were more than good enough to chase 155.

“I think before the match if you’d have given us 155 to chase, we’d have taken that all day long,” he said.

“I think we were quite happy coming off (after fielding). All the bowlers had contributed, and their score was probably just under par.

“But we never managed to get going and we had one good partnership between George Parsons and Anurag Kakkar.

“And then we had that calamitous over where basically we lost three wickets, and George had to come back at the end of the over. That broke the back of the batting. Unfortunately, we ended up on the losing side.

“Because we were looking at over 10 an over, there was too much pressure. The game was pretty much lost after that.

“Anything under 160 on a decent pitch, should be chaseable but it was just one of those things. It wasn’t our day. The batsmen didn’t quite come through today and we’re gutted, but it’s been a great tournament and we’ll be here again next year.

“We won it two years ago and were runners up last year and unfortunately this year as well.”