Slough cruise to 50-run win on return to action
Home Counties Cricket League: Captain Saif Zaib leads by example in victory over Oxford CC
■ SLOUGH CC
Slough marked their return to competitive league action with a comfortable 50-run win over Oxford at home on Saturday.
Despite fielding an inexperienced side, Slough looked to be in impressive nick in the first of their pooled Home Counties Premier League matches.
Led by captain Saif Zaib, who scored 28 in an opening stand of 48 with 16-year-old Sheridon Gumbs (27), they got to 203-7 from their 40 overs.
In response Oxford fell well short, bowled out for 153 in the 39th over.
Oxford chipped away with wickets and reduced Slough to 127-5 at one stage, but the ship was steadied by Nabil Junaid (29) and Mohammed Avas (31no) enabling the home side to reach double figures.
George Tait took bowling figures of 4-26 for Oxford.
Early wickets checked any momentum Oxford may have built up and they were never really in the hunt for a win, despite decent efforts from Elliot Matthews (33) and Dylan Swanepoel (31).
Slough’s Ashir Zaib and 17year-old Zain Ishaq shared three wickets apiece, while Danyal Akhtar and Zaib took two wickets each. Slough will host local rivals Burnham on Saturday.
■ DATCHET CC
Datchet won their first match of the season as they defeated Harefield by six wickets on Saturday. Harefield elected to bat on winning the toss and made 223-8 from their 40 overs, a competitive total in theory, but one Datchet surpassed with two overs to spare.
Thomas McLeod smashed 82 runs off 84 balls to drive Harefield’s innings onwards, and with Matthew Ogden adding 40 from 54 they’d have been confident of defending their total. Sulaiman Akhtar took 3-42 for Datchet.
However, this was a pitch that was to the batsmen’s liking, and, after Joe Barrett opened with 52 in an opening stand of 55 with Billy Mead (23) David Brent (93no) motored the home side towards their target. He was ably assisted by Steven Naylor (38no), as the hosts reached 224-4 from 38 overs. On Saturday Datchet will visit Wargrave CC.
■ WARGRAVE CC
Wargrave began their Home Counties campaign with a narrow three-run defeat to Thame Town on Saturday. Chasing 186-8, they came up just short. The majority of their runs came down the order from Michael Holder (31), Michael Cowdell, (34), and Josh Sivier (32).
■ BURNHAM CC
Shaan Khan blasted 75 for Burnham in their home match against High Wycombe on Saturday, but the home side still went down to an eight-wicket defeat.
Electing to bat on winning the toss, Burnham managed 223-6 from their 40 overs, with key contributions coming from Farhaan Khan (54), Khan (75) and Syed Bukhari (30). But despite posting a competitive total, High Wycombe – Home Counties Division 1 champions in 2015 – chased it with relative ease. Alexander Woodland, who finished on 89 not out and Dan Marles (79) did much of the damage, sending the ball to the boundary 24 times between them.
Burnham will visit Slough on Saturday.