Heavy downpours

At Stag Park

Sandham picked up three wickets, two of them bowled, and one of them the visiting professional Ed Read, before Butterworth took two in two balls – one bowled one from a return catch – to end the innings on 149. With a strong possibility of more rain Stags went out to bat with the aim of knocking off the runs quickly. They had a new target of 166 in 40 overs, and after 12 overs they had 113 on the board for the loss of Malik, at 59, who had bludgeoned 36 in quick time. Tolley managed to reach 50 before the rain came again, and this time it looked like the end. But the pitch stood up to it all well and when the teams went out again Norden had another new target of 130 in 20 overs which meant they actually needed another 17 off eight. Tolley took his score to 61, his only half chance offered coming off the matchwinning delivery which saw the ball just clear slips and go for four. Harvey Fitton was a little more cautious than the openers, at least in the early part of his knock, but he then played some delightful shots to finish unbeaten on 23. PM Turner c Tolley b D Buckley 1JP Turner c Tolley b Malik 19 S Khan lbw Butterworth 8 E Read b Sandham 17 J Westhead c Malik b Sandham 5 D Lord b Sandham 0 A Mohammed not out 1N Boyle b Butterworth 1M Livesey c and b Butterworth 0

Sandham 11-0-52-4; Malik 15-3-40-2; D Buckley 8-0-28-1; Butterworth 4-0-16-3.

H Malik b Read 36 J Tolley not out 61 H Fitton not out 23 Extras 10 Total (for 1 wkt) 130

Read 5-1-33-1; Livesey 3-0-32-0; Khan 3-0-37-0; Bolton 2.1-0-14-0; Mohammed 1-0-10-0