MALVERN beat local rivals Worcester Nomads by one-run in an epic WCL division two contest at Regency Road on Bank Holiday Monday.

MALVERN v WORCESTER NOMADS

Malvern batted first and made a decent start before Mark Baugh was dismissed with 33 on the board. Ollie Bendall and Steve Carter then put together a superb 93 run partnership before the prolific Bendall fell for 76. Carter soon followed for an excellent 41.

There was some fine middle-order batting from Andrew Cullen, Luke Halion and Jeremy Lee to post a decent score of 234-8 against an excellent Nomads attack led by Neil Thompson.

Malvern's pair of Rob Francis and Lee bowled a superb opening spell and after 15 overs Nomads were 36-1, but Malcolm Jones and Derek Austin picked-up the tempo with some lightning fast running and good shots to put the visitors back up with the run rate.

A brilliant direct hit by Halion saw Jones just run-out and he repeated the feat a couple of overs later to remove the dangerous Austin.

Dan Besgrove and Mike Cuneen brought about a middle order wobble and at 155-6 Malvern were back on top, but then Liam O'Driscoll proceeded to play a fantastic innings.

He hit some glorious shots all round the wicket and with Davies also playing some fine cricket, Nomads became slight favourites again and when 13 runs came off the 43rd over and ten off the 44th, Nomads sensed this was their chance to secure promotion.

Another seven runs came off over number 45 and with three overs to go the Bransford-based side needed seven runs to win with four wickets remaining.

Malvern were in desperate need of something special and they found it with Francis clean bowling Harris and then Lakin in successive balls.

Four runs came from the over also so three runs were required and two wickets for Malvern to gain a famous win.

Lee was entrusted with the ball, O'Driscoll hit down the ground for a single, then Taylor drove straight back at Lee who promptly stopped the ball and threw down the stumps to brilliantly run out O'Driscoll for a splendid 71, probably the only way he was going to be dismissed.

The final ball was bowled and it clattered into Taylor's stumps to give Malvern a sensational and quite extraordinary one-run win.

Certainly one of the greatest game ever played at Regency Road, played in excellent spirit throughout, it was hard on Nomads but hopefully they will secure promotion against Coombs Wood.

Tomorrow (Saturday), Malvern are at home to Netherton.