This past week has been very interesting having to listen to some of the Bailey’s Bay fans who feel they were robbed or denied the chance of winning the Eastern Counties Cup because of the rain.

The word from the Bay fans is that rain saved Cleveland, but did it really save us or did it save them?

It has been rather interesting listening to various people’s thoughts on how the game would have concluded. The reality is that the game was very much in the balance and could have gone either way. I can see why the Bay fans felt they had a good chance because they had wickets in hand.

Bay needed another 120 runs from 17 overs with seven wickets in hand. However, what they fail to realise is that we were never going to bowl our full amount of overs in the time remaining.

With just under an hour remaining before cut-off, we were going to bowl only 12 overs maximum, which turns the game back into our favour. Let me make this a little clearer — for 120 runs from 17 overs, the required run-rate is 7.05 per over; 120 runs from 12 overs bumps the run-rate to 10, which is a huge difference.

Looking at the Bailey’s Bay batting line-up and our bowling attack, scoring ten runs per over was always going to be a tall order, especially having just lost their captain Stephen Outerbridge.

Terryn Fray and Rodney Trott were the last of the recognised batsmen, so the question that I continue to ask the Bay fans is, “Who in that batting line-up was going to score at 10 runs per over?”

Don’t get me wrong, I was nervous and I will still say that Bay had a very good chance because it takes only one player to decorate the field with a few boundaries and they could have won it. But I don’t think it is fair to say Cleveland kept the trophy only because of the rain.

One thing we do know is that the game will be remembered as the day that Dion Stovell rose to the occasion and scored what can go down as arguably the most important hundred ever scored in the Eastern Counties Cup. To score a hundred under that type of pressure was phenomenal.

I wanted to get inside Dion’s head to see what he was thinking or feeling, so the following is a Q&A with Dion Stovell:

Q: Going to bat with the score 16 for three, what was going through your mind?

A: First thing as a batsman, you never panic no matter what the situation is. You check the pace of the wicket and get set, while scoring at a low risk. At 16 for three, it was always an uphill task, but that’s when I told myself I have to bat the innings out.

Q: How do you rate this hundred compared with other hundreds you have scored?

A: This hundred has got to go down as the best I have scored in my life. Controlled aggression, but more importantly it was a chanceless hundred. Out of all the hundreds I have scored, I will remember this one for the rest of my life.

Q: Did the fear of losing the trophy motivate you even more?

A: I never thought about losing the trophy. I was really motivated by retaining the trophy because we have worked so hard to win it. What motivated me even more is that people could see that now it’s not just a two-horse race in Eastern Counties; it’s three.

Q: What is it about Eastern Counties that you seem to be able to raise your game consistently?

A: Cleveland is where I started my cricket as a youngster, so Eastern Counties is something I always dreamt about winning for the fans and the community. What brings the best out in me are the Cleveland fans. No matter what the result is, they are always behind the team. I remember a player in the team about four or five years ago telling me I can’t play in front of a big crowd, so that kind of motivated me. Here we are years later and I have two Eastern Counties hundreds to my name. I’ve always felt that Eastern Counties is something that I owe the team, fans and community. Yes, I am a Southampton Rangers player, but Cleveland will always have a place in my heart.

Q: Having won everything with Rangers, can the Cleveland fans expect to see you return to your roots and play league cricket for them?

A: The Cleveland fans have been good to me, but I am a registered Southampton Rangers player. However, you never know what the future holds.

At the beginning of the Eastern Counties who would have thought Cleveland would dethrone St David’s and then retained the trophy against a powerful Bailey’s Bay team. It just goes to show that cricket is a game that is played on the field and that you cannot take any team for granted.

The next round is in a week’s time, with Flatts looking to wrestle the trophy away from Cleveland. Trust me, we will not be taking them lightly, as we have proven already what underdogs can do.