Geraint Jones had a right to the grin planted firmly on his still boyish face. Minutes earlier he had been carried round Lord’s – his two sons in tow – after his final game as a professional cricketer had ended with the unlikeliest of wins as Gloucestershire twice fought back to topple Surrey.
First, his 50 had nudged and nurdled his team towards a defendable total. Then, with Surrey cruising towards their target, the spinners Jack Taylor and Tom Smith intervened as the final eight wickets remarkably fell for 71 and Surrey were left six short with three balls unbowled.
Jones ranked his final day in cricket as one of his finest moments in the game – a decade after his unforgettable role in the 2005 Ashes. “It’s right up at the top,” he said, “purely as I was able to contribute and the group of Gloucester lads I play with, that added more than I could put into words really as they just made my last few months in cricket so enjoyable.”
Contribute Jones certainly did. From 108 for five he and Smith oversaw a careful rebuild, sharing 42, before Taylor came out and played his strokes as they put on 49. When Jones was castled by a Jade Dernbach yorker a ball after bringing up his half-century, the final two followed instantly, with Dernbach securing a rather fortuitous hat-trick – David Payne’s lbw was heading wildly down leg-side – to cap a marvellous bowling performance. His guileful six for 35 looked to have squeezed Gloucestershire out of the game.
Jones admitted Gloucestershire were “very nervous and maybe 15 to 20 shy” at half-time before Kumar Sangakkara and Rory Burns shared 101, appearing to reduce the chase to a stroll. The game turned as Sangakkara miscued a Taylor full toss to Will Tavaré – on in Jones’s stead – at mid-on. “I had been lurking down at third man, just taking deep breaths and thinking: ‘Let’s take it deep, take it as far as we can and, if we do that, we’re in with a shout.’ Thankfully when I popped off for a toilet break was when Sangakkara hit the ball to Tavs. I knew they were trying to hit it my way, so I got out of there quick smart!”
With Sangakkara gone, Surrey panicked, with only the 17-year-old Sam Curran showing resistance. The final three wickets fell in four deliveries – James Burke run out carelessly, then Curran and Gareth Batty caught in the deep – as Gloucestershire completed a remarkable heist and a famous victory, their first trophy in 11 years.
Jones said: “I just feel very lucky to finish this way. Very few people get the chance to walk off and lift a trophy and look back on such a great day. I’m very privileged and very happy for my team-mates because I know what it means to them. They’re a young group, they’re such a good group together and enjoy each other’s company.
“I couldn’t have asked for anything more, my family was here, although I had to keep batting because the boys had swimming lessons this morning and then they had to get the train up, so I kept looking over there and I couldn’t get out until they showed up. That spurred me on a bit.”
When Batty picked out Taylor at deep-midwicket, last man to fall, Gloucestershire players set off sprinting in all directions as bedlam broke out among their fans in the Edrich Stand; for Jones, a storied career had found a fittingly euphoric finale.
“I knew if we got to this point it would be this sort of celebration. It’s been a thing that I’ve been saying to myself these last few weeks since we got to the knockouts: just dare to dream and who knows. It couldn’t have worked out better.”
