Pacific found themselves in trouble chasing 186 but were saved by a superb partnership from Ravi and Pranav. The pair saw off Shakespeare's hostile bowler Alex Chadwick, then timed the chase perfectly as the pressure eased.

Earlier Nick Epstein's chinamen and newcomer Andy Collier's pace had reduced Shakespeare to 120 for 7, before their big hitting skipper led a small recovery.

After showing great patience Ravi smashed the winning runs with a few balls to spare, having reached his fifty a few overs earlier. He and Pranav showed great composure on a misbehaving pitch*.

An excellent last over finish to a game soundtracked by live music from a festival on Alexandra Park**.

*The normally sedate Ally Pally pitch is still offering the odd shooter from short of a length, but is now also offering ones that pop up alarmingly off a good length. Hurray. Skipper Ireland shrugged off a glancing blow to his melon which carried to second slip, and Ravi was floored for a few minutes after taking one in the nuts. 

**At one point Ravi was running in to bowl just as a squealing free jazz sax solo was reaching its peak. Not surprisingly the batsman missed the ball and was bowled.