Hinckley overcome shaky start to seal win
HINCKLEY Town gained their first 30-point haul of the season at Leicester Road on Saturday when they beat Oakham by 47 runs.
Oakham won the toss and asked Hinckley to bat.
As of late, Hinckley were soon in trouble losing Craig Crowe for zero, caught by Will Bell, bowled Darran Jones, and then Rishi Panthol for four, caught Shyam Lakhani bowled Albert Radford.
Those early wickets left Hinckley struggling on 6-2.
Carl Crowe came in and with captain Raj Sen they steadied the ship, but with the score on 42 Crowe was bowled by Sean Cowley for 18.
When drinks were taken after 23 overs Hinckley were only 46-3.
They then lost Sen for 21 in the 31st over with the score on 68.
Then a stand of 73 in 13 overs between Janack Valand and Pinto Patel helped Hinckley get to a reasonable score on a sticky wicket.
Evenutally Patel was caught by Lakhani, off a Dursten ball for 40. This included some big hits.
Hinckley finished on 154-5 with Valand 54 not out. Cowley took 2-45 for Oakham.
But 154 looked a good score when Oakham fell to 12-3 after only three overs.
Dursten was bowled by Suki Singh for a duck. Martin was brilliantly caught one-handed by Avish Patel off the bowling of Singh, again for a duck and Radford was LBW to Mo Bhola for one.
Bhavin Shukla and Vivek Naker took Oakham’s score on to 54 when Naker was bowled by Tom Hilton for 16.
Oakham were well up with the run rate required but lost wickets at regular intervals.
The introduction of Carl Crowe’s spin tightened Hinckley’s grip on the game.
Crowe bowled Shukla leaving the visitors on 66-5 after 20 overs and they then slipped to 98 -8.
A knock of 22 from No.6 Bell helped matters.
But Oakham were all out for 107 in the 39th over.
Singh took 3-16 and Carl Crowe 3-19 for Hinckley. This was a welcome win for the home side and leaves them sixth in division 1.
Next week they visit Leicester Banks.