Scorecard

Leamington Cricket Club 1st XI v Stourbridge on Sat 26 Apr 2014 at 12.00
Leamington Cricket Club Won By 13 Runs

Match report After a disappointing previous two seasons in which the 1st XI have endured back-to-back relegations, Leamington showed great character to win a tight game against a good Stourbridge side by 13 runs.

During the winter the 1st XI put in a lot of hard yards to improve as a group to ensure that they are in with a chance of promotion back into division 1 sooner rather than later. The game against Stourbridge was also a chance to showcase a fairly new look team with Mark Lewis and Rob Williams returning after long-standing injuries and work commitments, whilst new spinning all-rounders Mark Ashcroft and Nabeel Ashgar made their débuts to help strengthen an area which was previously an area for concern.

Having lost the toss, Stourbrige made early inroads into Leamington's top order as Shahbaz Alam and David Bailey fell cheaply but Mark Lewis and Mark Ashcroft (35) joined forces in a vital third wicket partnership. Once Ashcroft departed, Lewis (73) played an assured and valuable innings alongside captain Rob Williams (48) and Lee Hopkins (31) who helped to up the scoring as Leamington compiled a very competitive 209-8 from their 50 overs. The pick of the bowlers for Stourbridge was Hassan who picked up 4-47.

Due to a couple of rain breaks during the Leamington innings, league rules calculated that Stourbridge needed 160 from 29 overs for the win but they got off to the worst possible start as Grant Thornton produced a beauty to clean bowl Bingham with the first ball of the innings. Game followed shortly afterwards to Tom Warner (1-20) before captain Bradley (20) and overseas player Alexander (27) came together to keep Stourbridge in the hunt. However, the introduction of Faisal Khalid turned the game in Leamington's favour as he produced a wonderful spell of seam bowling as wickets started to tumble. He picked up three quick wickets in a spell in which the home side dominated and despite a couple of half-chances going down, the home side were excellent in the field and picked up a couple of vital run outs. Despite a valiant 39 from Banks, the result was secured as Thornton (2-12) returned to pick up another wicket as did Khalid, who finished with an excellent 4-22 from his 6 overs to help his side pick up an excellent 13 run victory.

Leamington travel to Penkridge next week.

Leamington Cricket Club 1st XI Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
5nb 4w 2lb 
for 8 wickets
11
209		        
Shabaaz Alam Caught  7 1
Mark Lewis Caught  73
David Bailey Caught  2
Mark Ashcroft Caught  35 1
Rob Williams Bowled  48
Lee Hopkins Caught  31 2 1
Grant Thornton Caught  1
Tom Warner Not Out  1 1
Jonathan Wigley Bowled  0
Nabeel Asghar  
Faisal Khalid  

Stourbridge Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Matthew Bradley9.0329129.003.22
Ali Shah10.0138219.003.80
Bilal Hassan9.0047411.755.22
Audy Alexander10.013200.003.20
Vikesh Patel9.0144144.004.89
James Wood3.001700.005.67

Stourbridge Batting
Player name RMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
3nb 20w 4b 3lb 
for 9 wickets
30
146 (29.0 overs)		     
Alex Bingham b G Thornton 0
Steven Game ct Alam b. Warner 1
Richard Bradley run out Warner/Ashcroft 20
Audy Alexander ct Hopkins b. Khalid 27
Bilal Hassan b Khalid 2
Josh Banks run out Hopkins 39
Matthew Bradley ct Hopkins b. Khalid 13
Greg Jones ct Ashcroft b. Khalid 4
Vikesh Patel b Thornton 0
James Wood Not Out  8
Ali Shah Not Out  2

Leamington Cricket Club 1st XI Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Grant Thornton5.0128214.005.60
Tom Warner4.0020120.005.00
Shabaaz Alam3.001600.005.33
Faisal Khalid6.012245.503.67
Nabeel Asghar6.003500.005.83
Mark Ashcroft4.001800.004.50