Fireworks from the bat of Bing Stanley and a late burst of wickets from the unlikely golden arms of Ratta and Tambyrajah was not enough to overcome Mayfield in the MEIL. 

Batting first, Pacific got off to a poor start as the makeshift opening pair of Burnham (0) and Dinsey (4), selected due to being the only people in their whites in time for the start rather than on batting talent, failed to see off the new ball and Howes (5) followed them back to the pavilion with the score on 31. Sumeet (24), Kieran (18) and especially the hard hitting Bing (57) formed the bulk of the Pacific innings with some late hitting from the lesser spotted Phil Smith (17 with two fours and a six) pushing the total along to 180, which looked below par but not by much on a tricky pitch.

Mayfield's reply got off to a very strong start despite the early loss of Bhairo (2), with the pair of Starck the younger and Mirza putting on 83 for the second wicket and Mirza continuing to score heavily with the number four, taking Mayfield to just 40 runs away from victory with eight wickets left. There then commenced a curious passage of play where captain Hussain's decision to turn to the veteran spinners Rafiq Ratta and Tony Tambyrajah turned out to be stroke of genius: Ratta took three wickets for 23 in his five overs and Tony bowled a single wicket maiden. Starck the elder and Sondh took Mayfield home with three wickets in hand, but Pacific had applied more than a veneer of credibility to the scorecard and forced a few more of the home team to pad up than had looked likely heading into the final hour.

Stats watch:

• 3-23 is Rafiq's best bowling analysis for Pacific, beating 3-26 in 2016 and doubling his wicket count for the season
• Bing scored his first 50 for Pacific
• Tony's wicket maiden reduced his bowling average to 10.5 and moved him to second on the season averages