BRAVE King’s Road retained the South London Ashes after battling out a hard-fought draw against the Battersea Badgers.

The first ever two-day Super Test ended with both sides locked in stalemate after 180 gruelling overs of intense play.

In a nail-biting finish The Road – despite a valiant effort – finally ran out of overs at the Wandsworth Common home of cricket.

With the match on a knife-edge they fell just 24 runs short of pulling off what would have been an incredible win.

The Badgers had set the Orange Caps a massive 261 to win off just 39 overs after declaring on 165 for six in Sunday’s afternoon session.

But The Road hit back in style to set up a tense finish and bring the keenly-fought match right down to the wire. In the end, neither side could force the win.

It means the series is drawn after one win each this season and the Orange Caps are still UNBEATEN in series after three years of playing against the Badgers.

This year though the rivalry has been closer than ever.

The match kicked off in overcast conditions with King’s Road skipper Raju Mazumder winning the toss and putting his side into bat.

To see the match scorecard click HERE.

To see Amir’s snaps of the match click HERE.

With rain forecast for the evening session, he hoped to take advantage of the cloud-cover to skittle the Badgers out before play was halted.

The Badgers had other ideas – and when openers Al Smith and Jan Marchant walked out to bat they got off to a dream start.

Playing sensibly and reigning in the big shots, Marchant and Smith nurdled a steady 119 between them to put The Road on the back foot and get them through to lunch unscathed.

It was just what the doctor ordered for the Badgers – and from that point on King’s Road were always playing catch-up.

The Road finally made the breakthrough to get their test match underway when Marchant gloved one behind off Road paceman Dan Howard for a solid 56 off 93 balls.

It brought an end to a wonderful partnership that gave the Badgers the solid foundation they needed. After that King’s Road needed to roar on fast or risk letting the Badgers get away from them.

Just eight runs later Marchant was joined in the hutch by Cloke, who was deceived by his opposition’s skip Raju for a duck.

Spinner Raju continued to cause problems tying leftie Tom Maskell in knots early on.

Yet the wickets weren’t falling fast enough and when Maskell steadied himself he started setting about the bowling.

The loss of Marchant, bowled by the reigning King of The Road Leon Watson for 45, stemmed the flow but not for long.

With three wickets down and the score on 154 the Badgers were looking dominant and wondering whether they could top 300 for the first time against their old rivals.

Pete Warman helped pile on the misery before a brief glimmer of hope for The Road emerged as rookie Chris Beckett stepped in to bowl.

The medium-pacer – known as the “wicket machine”, or “Dr Spin” to Pritch – finally got Maskell caught Dave at square leg for 44.

And former skipper Andy Thorpe went next ball caught by Dan off Becks for a golden duck to set up a sensational hat-trick chance to turn the match around.

It didn’t happen – and just brought in Chris Shone who helped put on 24 and take the Badgers past 200 before he went lbw to Jamie Keating.

Warman followed ten runs later trapped lbw by beefy Matt Cocken for 26 and it looked like The Road were slowly picking up speed.

Unfortuntely for them the Badgers’ tail wagged with Jacob Thomas and Stuart Barker stealing 49 precious first innings runs before Thomas was run out by Matt.

Barker fell 13 runs later bowled by Raju for a valuable 34 off 38 balls with the score on 293.

It was up to the last pair of Louise Hirst and Alex Shires to sneak the Badgers over the important 300 mark before Cloke’s declaration inevitably came.

Both sides took tea with the exhausted Road facing the treacherous task of navigating a dangerously wet evening session after spending four hours in the field.

The light was closing in rain made the pitch damp – and a totally different surface to play on from what it had been.

Suddenly the docile pitch had life in it and it was looking dicey for The Road, who had 30 overs to get through. It meant preserving wickets for Sunday’s morning session was the order of the day.

The Badgers on the other hand had the chance to run away with the match at the midway point and make it almost impossible for the Orange Caps to come back.

King’s Road sent out tinkerman Raju – renowned for his ability to block – and bowler Kevin Pittaway in the hope they could hang in there for as long as possible.

The gamble didn’t pay off though as Kev was bowled first ball and Raju lasted 12 balls in the terrible conditions.

Number three Leon fought back, taking the attack to the Badgers in a defiant display of hitting. He smashed 13 fours in a 44-ball innings by punishing some wayward bowling to make a dent in the Badgers’ impressive total.

When he fell, caught behind off a leading edge going after one from Thorpe the total was on 79 – a stonking 65 of which he’d scored himself.

Matt followed eight runs later for 12, lbw to Maskell, to leave The Road four down before wickie Giles Fagan and Dan saw the Orange Caps to the close.

Overnight The Road were in trouble, with only six wickets left and still more than 200 runs behind while the Badgers were clearly in the driving seat.

But it could have been worse, if the Badgers had taken full advantage of the torrid conditions they could have buried The Road and left them with no chance.

Going into the second day King’s Road had high hopes that Dan and Giles could pile on the runs swiftly. With the sun out and the pitch dried, the aim was to claw back to somewhere near the 300 and declare before lunch.

Dan didn’t last long though and was caught by Thomas off the impressive all-rounder Maskell for 9. Hughes followed, bowled second ball, and Jamie K departed after three balls.

The collapse looked disasterous but with big-hitting Giles to marshal the innings at the other end there was still a chance.

And the cider-drinking Golden Oldie did his job in style hitting a powerful 72 off just 48 balls – including 5 massive sixes – before being bowled by Thorpe.

Then, just as the Badgers’ tale had wagged, so did The Road’s.

James Pritchard, batting at eight, hit 18 crucial runs, Becks chipped in with a career-best 9 and James C contributed 10 before being left not out.

The Road finished 94 runs short but the morning’s work was good. Runs had been plundered quickly and the had been on its way when they were bowled out.

Now, as the tension mounted, they had the task of bowling out the Badgers cheaply to set up an evening run chase.

Straight away opener Smith – so difficult to remove in the first innings – fell third ball to an incredible one-handed catch by Pritch at silly mid-off.

Bowler Dan was overjoyed and it was just the start The Road needed to inspire them before a run could be scored.

Then the shaky Badgers lost another. Lunch-watchman Thomas had his stumps smashed by the fiery Dan who worked up a head of steam in one of his best spells for the club.

Kev then had Shires caught behind to leave the Badgers tottering on 17 for three and 111 ahead. With the game seemingly heading for a draw they needed runs quickly to build a total and gain enough time to bowl out The Road.

The Orange Caps however needed either to bowl out the Badgers quickly before they could put on a total or keep the runs down to force their opponents into making a risky declaration.

In the end neither happened – with opener Jan still in and Warman walking to the crease the Badgers kept out The Road’s attack long enough.

Warman and Marchant added a vital 86 before Marchant got caught behind off Leon. Hirst and Shone added further runs before they both fell to swing-bowler Matt – who finished with an impressive 2 for 11 – and Barker hit out at the end to take 13 off 19 balls.

It left the Badgers in charge, setting King’s Road a daunting – but not impossible – final session total of 261 to win off 39 overs.

In a nerve-jangling final session The Road would have to hit a club record score at seven an over, or see out the overs to claim a draw.

It was all set for a grandstand finish and that’s exactly what the game got as it went right to the wire.

Showman Giles was sent out to open with Pritch, who looked good in the first innings. With the score on 9 Pritch fell to a controversial lbw decision and the game was on.

In-form Leon came to the crease and with Giles the pair immediately picked up where they left off in the first innings to wrest control back off the Badgers.

With some savage hitting, the pair put on a monster partnership of 164 to take The Road to the brink of victory.

It wasn’t to be though as Giles holed out to Warman. He’d belted 69 after scoring at more than a run a ball but it wasn’t enough.

Four balls later, with hopes still high of a win, his replacement Dave got his second duck of the match.

The run rate dropped but all three results were still possible. King’s Road needed Leon and new batsman Matt to push them to victory, and the Badgers had to keep the runs down and capture wickets.

Nerves were jangling, but yet again neither side was able to force the issue.

When Thorpe pulled off a simply stunning diving one-handed catch low down to his right at gully to deny Leon a chance of a ton after hitting 76, The Road’s chances of pulling off a famous victory dimmed.

With tiredness beginning to show on both sides, Thorpe then had Matt caught and bowled for 11 on 199 as the overs and wickets started to run down fast with the run rate needed for a win steepling.

The excitable Dan could only manage 2 before becoming Thorpe’s second victim of the innings and a careful 16 from Jamie K kept the hungry Badger from the King’s Road door.

At the death Kev, with 15, and Raju saw the Orange Caps home with ease to settle the match with a draw that was well-deserved by both teams.

Neither side was good enough to get the win and after two days of battling against each other the teams fought each other to a standstill – although the result could have gone either way in the final few overs.

Both captains can be proud of their troops but it was the Badgers who needed the win more, as the draw secured another series win for The Road.