Boorah impresses with bat and ball as Portsmouth win again
Portsmouth 3rds, Kerala 2nds and Fareham & Crofton 2nds all chalked up their third straight win in Division 4 South of the Hampshire League
Kerala won by 106 runs at home to fellow Portsea Island club Portsmouth & Southsea 3rds, Portsmouth triumphed by 56 runs against Trojans 2nds and Fareham & Crofton overcame Steep 2nds by eight wickets.
Three players made halfcenturies for Kerala as they racked up 256-4 from their 45 overs after choosing to bat.
Karthik Muthuraman topscored with 59 at the top of the order, while Robin Thomas was 50 not out and Nimal Valsan was unbeaten on 53.
Rakesh Janardhanan, who opened with Muthuraman, added 42 and the total was swelled by 48 extras, including 33 wides. Harrison Etherington took 2-34 for P & S.
The visitors were all out for 150 in 36 overs in reply as Valsan and Elson George picked up three wickets each.
Five P & S batters reached double figures, but Mukul Daga top scored with 30.
Meanwhile, Portsmouth posted 203 all out in 42 overs after being asked to bat by visitors Trojans.
The top three – Salman Aasif (38), James Boorah (41) and Joseph Stretton (24) – scored more than half the runs between them, while there were contributions lower down the order from Lewis Ndahiro (33) and wicket-keeper Archie Simmons (20).
Boorah then capped a splendid individual performance by claiming 5-24 from 7.2 overs to help dismiss Trojans for 147 (opener Touqeer Ahmed 68).
Fareham continued their strong start, bowling out visitors Steep for 131 in 40.4 overs before winning in 32.1 for the loss of just two wickets.
Steep reached 43-0 after winning the toss before the innings fell away rather rapidly as James Hawley picked up 3-11 from 6.4 overs and Gary West 3-25. Sean Noble top scored with 39 at the top of the order.
Fareham were 30-2 in reply, but an unbroken thirdwicket partnership of 103 between Ryan Fitsell (58 not out) and Roy Townson (46 not out) guided them home comfortably.
There was a rare tie between Southampton Travellers and Fair Oak 3rds.
Fair Oak posted 178-9 in 45 overs having opted to take first knock and the Travellers ended their reply on 1788 (opener Ramnik Behar 71, No 3 Uzair Khan 60).
*A 100-run stand for the fourth wicket between Azaan Shah (51) and captain James
White (50) was the highlight of Portsmouth & Southsea 2nds’ 217 all out total at Ellingham in Division 3 South.
No 7 Jimmy Edwards (68 not out) starred as the hosts won by three wickets to extend their winning start to three matches.
In the same division, Srinath Nugegoda starred as Gosport Borough 2nds defeated Mudeford by just 11 runs.
First, he scored an unbeaten 30 batting at No8 - his side’s second top score, behind opener Ephraim Royle’s 42, as Boro were dismissed for 142.
It proved a winning score as Nugegoda cleaned up the middle order and tail to end with 6-20 as the hosts could only manage 131.
That beat his previous best of 6-25 recorded for Boro 2nds against Froxfield five years ago.