MAGIC Dan Sherman pulled a much-needed 52 out of his hat to cunjure up an emphatic 45-run win – The Road’s first for 14 matches.

The Orange Caps had slumped – in familiar style – to an alarming 95 for 8 batting first against the Earl of Rochester.

It started on the very first ball. Unlucky opener Matt Small knocked the ball onto his stumps for a platinum duck to get The Road off to the worst possible start.

And with the ball jumping all over the shop, Leon Watson – despite surviving until the 9th over – departed on 6. He got a wizard ball from Tom.

Sham, Elliot and Alistair however battled hard to pitch in with useful scores of 21, 11 and 20.

Yet The Road still struggled on a freakishly bouncy track that even made slow bowlers look menacing.

Captain Matt Cocken was caught behind for 3 fishing to another ball  outside off stump that reared up off a length.

Both Tom Parnell and Amir Alipour-Mehraban lasted just two balls before Tom was plumb lbw and Amir got bowled.

But going in when the chips were very much down, Dan “The Sherminator” led a stunning fightback from the tail-enders.

With Jamie Keating – batting at the unfamiliar number 10 spot – the pair put on a match-winning 68 before Keats declined a run to leave Dan stranded.

The Poet finished on 27 not out to push the total up to 177, which turned out to be more than enough on Old Deer Park’s treacherous pitch.

For once, The Road had recovered from a very sticky situation to bat out their full 35 over allocation on an overcast and windy day in Richmond.

King’s Road then had the pitch to use to their advantage and skittled the Earl with ease as openers Kevin Pittaway and Matt Small bagged three wickets each.

In an eventful match, keeper Elliot Small pouched an incredible one-handed flying catch off Kev and newboy Alistair – a cousin of the Small brothers – took another beauty off Leon to finish the match.

Paceman Kev, who took full advantage of the conditions, ended with remarkable figures of 3 for 4 off 4.

Matt Small got equally impressive figures of 3 for 12 off 7 and Alistair on his debut, Sham, Amir and Leon each picked up a scalp.

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Much of the on-field banter in the good-natured match referred to members of the Earl team’s apparent likeness to characters from JK Rowling’s Harry Potter novels.

But it was left to The Road’s own wand-waving wizard to cast a spell on the opposition attack.

Saturday’s victory was only The Road’s second of the season, having gone 14 games without a win since beating newly-crowned London Premier League champions the London Itinerants in May.