MacRobertson Shield Day 15 - The longest day

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[<<] [>>] by England Team at Surbiton
7th August (The MacRobertson Shield)

Today was the first round of singles in the deciding test. James v Paddy, Rob v Logan, Samir v Felix, Jamie v Edmund, Mark v Jenny and Jack v Aaron.

Jenny started well against Mark and wrapped up a quick +26 to put England on the back foot. James and Paddy were doublebanking Mark and Jenny and James was on for a tp to put a game on the board early for England but found an unlucky way of not finishing after rover. Paddy didn't complete his triple but finished under control and after a missed shot put another game up for New Zealand.

Jamie was in a close battle and prevailed +2 to put England on the board for the day. Only 3 games out of the 6 matches were finished by lunch and it felt like this was going to be a long drawn out day.

After lunch Janes had a quick triple to equalise against Paddy, Samir was pegged out by Felix and eventually dropped the first by just 3. Rob pegged out Logan and took the first by 4 just before Mark equalised against Jenny and the tide was slowly starting to turn.

Just as it started looking better, Paddy with a triple of his own to beat James and Edmund equalising against Jamie kept the day feeling very tense..

A little after 6pm Aaron finally finished game 1 against Jack by the ultimate margin of +1, a lot of that game at the end needs to be seen to be believed. Watch the livestream back if you want to see what happened. Rob then closed out his match to tie the test again.

Edmund won the third comfortably against Jamie to put New Zealand ahead again before Samir equalised against Felix.

Mark won a pegged out third game against Jenny and tied the test at 5-5. As the light faded, Jack was still battling against Aaron in the second game and Samir had another heroic captain's knock to beat Felix and give England the overnight lead 6-5.

England won the day 3-2 with just one unfinished today and were happy with their concentration levels throughout a long hot day. Final round of doubles tomorrow before the other singles on Sunday to see who lifts the Shield at the end.

If you are in the Surbiton area, come along and watch a thrillinmg conclusion over the weekend.