VALIANT King’s Road couldn’t close out a win against the Durham Occasionals – despite pulling off another sensational turnaround.

For the second week in a row The Road batted first and suffered a catastrophic collapse.

And yet again the bowlers roared back to the take the match right to the wire.

This time though – after snatching a win against the London Itinerants last week – the Orange Caps fell just short.

The boys from Battersea did everything but take the final wicket to claim victory.

What made it even more frustrating was that the final batsman had gone in for a second bite of the cherry.

He’d been dismissed for 7 but – because the Occasionals could only field 10 – he went in again.

Playing for the first time at Richmond’s Old Deer Park, the match got under way with The Road sporting a figure-hugging new kit.

Rain was forecasted for the afternoon so the match reduced to 30 overs and – due to late arrivals – both sides agreed King’s Road would bat first.

Leon Watson and Richard Peralta opened and straight from the off it was clear the unfamiliar pitch was bouncy and unpredictable.

Ball after ball bowled on a length kicked up, but then the unlucky opener Leon got a shooter from Haber that barely bounced. He was bowled with the score on 10.

Rich, playing in just his second match for The Road, battled on and put on 20 with Mark Isham before he too was bowled by Tasker having hit 15.

Unfortunately for The Road it didn’t get much better than that – with Rich’s score ending up as the top one for the innings.

Sixteen runs later Mark departed for 13 and Elliot Small went for 7 before James Pritchard and captain Matt Cocken were both dismissed for 5.

By now The Road were 6 down having scored a measly 62, and already running out of overs. It wasn’t looking pretty.

Jamie Keating came in tried to up the ante with a quick blast hitting 14 – which included three boundaries – but his short cameo fizzled out in just 7 balls.

Adam Majeed was then run out for 7 – after another mix-up in the middle with Raju Mazumder – to leave the Orange Caps floundering on 83 for 8.

Just like last week’s thrilling match, The Road were left desperately trying to scramble the runs needed to get them past 100.

With Raju and Amir Alipour at the crease and just James Couldrey to come it seemed a long way off.

Raju and Amir blocked out manfully, facing 31 balls between them to score 15. This time though their partnership couldn’t quite push The Road into three figures.

Amir was run out for 3 on the last ball attempting a run which would have set the Occasionals a target of 100.  Instead The Road finished on 98 – another disappointingly low total.

What was needed now was a superhuman effort from The Road’s attack to win the match.

Straight away James continued his good form with the new ball by bowling McEwen early on and Adam followed up smashing Tibblez’s stumps.

There was a buzz in The Road’s bowling. But then disaster struck: Adam, the man with magic in his arm, hurt his shoulder fielding a ball on the boundary.

He couldn’t bowl – a bitter blow for new skip Matt Cocken which looked to snuff out any faint hopes of a win.

But up stepped paceman James who, with 6 wickets to his name already this season before the match.

Bowling with new-found accuracy, James quickly added another two more to the one he’d taken already to send shockwaves through the opposition line-up.

After Matt had smartly stumped opener Riley’s bails off Mark and then hit Ed Irving’s stumps, James returned to wreak havoc.

Rathore was caught behind for 2 and then, in a moment of drama, James caught Johnson off his own bowling to complete another 3-for.

James caught the ball diving as he followed through. It richoched off his hands then dropped on his belly before bouncing up and into his grateful hands.

It was sensational wicket which showed The Road were right back in it and firing off all cylinders.

The Occasionals were 6 down with only 10 men, and more was to come.

Leon swiftly knocked out Legget’s middle stump and Matt returned to have Tasker caught by Rich at midwicket.

The Road were on fire, and the Occasionals were rocking badly now.

A decision had to be made as to what would happen when the eighth wicket went down. Both teams agreed the Occasionals would be allowed to field another batsman who scored a middle amount.

It was agreed on the basis of what happened in a fixture between the clubs last season and meant opener McEwen got the chance to bat twice.

Occasionals skip Irving quipped his man had got out to seven-year-old last season. Getting him out proved more difficult for The Road though.

However, the eighth wicket wasn’t long coming. After a short break for a downpour, Raju ran out Haber and in came the opener McEwen for a second go.

The score was 63 for 9, with The Road right on the brink of a famous win. The Occasionals had been losing wickets at the rate of one every 7 runs, and still needed 35 more with their final stand.

But what a final stand. As the rain cleared, The Road missed their chance to finish the game off.

Leon fluffed a sharp caught and bowled chance high to his left which would have sent the team into raptures.

After that McEwen simply eased them home with the help of solid batting from Metcalfe.

McEwen – batting nowhere near like he did in the opening overs – had taken the Occasionals across the finishing line.

For The Road – who got so near yet so far – it was heart-break.

James was the pick of the attack, once again bowling with menace but this time without Adam at the other end.

Matt also took 2 for 18 – while Elliot was keeping wicket – plus a stumping and a catch when he had the gloves on.