EVEN the swashbuckling Graham Napier was put in the shade by hard-hitting Jamie Lee in an amazing cameo innings on Sunday.Playing for Mildenhall Second XI, in a Hunts County Bats Suffolk League Division Five fixture at Walsham, 18-year-old Jamie struck 11 sixes in two overs, a feat that not even Essex star Napier has managed in recent weeks.

Carl Marston

EVEN the swashbuckling Graham Napier was put in the shade by hard-hitting Jamie Lee in an amazing cameo innings on Sunday.

Playing for Mildenhall Second XI, in a Hunts County Bats Suffolk League Division Five fixture at Walsham, 18-year-old Jamie struck 11 sixes in two overs, a feat that not even Essex star Napier has managed in recent weeks.

Culford School pupil Jamie hit six sixes in one over, and followed that up with five more in the next over that he faced - off a different bowler.

Set 209 for victory, Mildenhall reached their target in just 13 overs. Jamie contributed an unbeaten 132, which incorporated 16 sixes - equating to 96 runs alone!

He opened the batting with his brother Alex Lee, who was out for 12 with the score on 38. Then Jamie and Hein Muller hammered 172 from just eight overs in an unbroken stand that secured a nine-wicket victory.

“In the past I had hit three sixes and three fours in one over, but nothing like this,” enthused Jamie, who lives in Hargrave.

“We took a look at the bowling and then decided to go for it. Both bowlers were spinners, and most of my shots went between mid-wicket and long-off, over the sightscreen.

“They changed the bowler at the same end, and I couldn't hit the first ball, because it bounced about three times down the leg-side. I was going to run at it, but I didn't want to be stumped. However, I hit the next five balls for six.

“The 132 isn't my highest score, because I scored 183 not out in the same League three years ago,” added Jamie.

Opening batsman Jamie, who also bowls, has just finished at Culford School, where he was not surprisingly the skipper of the first XI cricket team. He is planning to start to Bath University in the autumn.

Jamie's stupendous knock came in the wake of Napier's recent exploits with the bat for Essex. Napier hit a world record 16 sixes in a Twenty20 Cup match against Sussex, on his way to 152 off just 58 balls, before weighing in with 61 off 34 deliveries, including six sixes, in the Friends Provident Trophy semi-final success over Yorkshire.