ANDOVER are now just two games away from a trip to Hampshire’s home - the Ageas Bowl, after they pulled off a thrilling victory just like England on Sunday in the Southern League T20 Cup, writes MATT KNIGHT.

It was a great win for Division One outfit as they they took the scalp of the visiting reigning Premier champions St Cross by five wickets.

Andover won the toss and batted first on a used London Road surface and suffered an early setback losing Glyn Treagus (1) in the first over.

However, Andrew Duckworth (28) and St Cross old boy Alex Ayers (39) took up the mantle for the Nordlock sponsored side with some clean ball striking around the ground.

Useful cameos from Matt Knight (19) and Charlie Ayers (23) took Andover to a strong position of 115 with four overs of the innings remaining.

St Cross then blew away the Andover lower order through Matt Stokes (4-21) and Simon Beetham (3-9) to leave Andover 123 all out from their 20 overs.

The St Cross innings initially started positively through openers Max Curtis (23) and Tom Foyle (9) who kept St Cross up with the required run rate during the powerplay, but both were caught off the bowling of Mike Adams (2-16).

Ed Ellis (23) and Stokes (20) rebuilt the innings and with 50 runs required off the last eight overs, a close finish was in the offing.

Spinners Matt Hooper (2-25) and Charlie Ayers (2-27) spun the game back into Andover’s favour with the St Cross batsmen struggling to find the boundary.

With seven required from the final over, Ayers took a tricky caught and bowled to remove the dangerous looking James Allen (9) and then bowled four dots to take Andover to victory.

Their reward is a home tie in the last eight against Bashley (Rydal) on Sunday, August 4.

Before this on Saturday, back in the league Andover are at home to OTs and Romsey.