Visitors take run pursuit to final over

Hamza with the score on 161 care of an excellent catch by Schofield at long on and with eight overs left 56 were needed with skipper Sam Holt and Florentine at the crease.

Ali dropped Holt first ball off a sharp high caught and bowled chance. Both batsman batted sensibly as Perren rotated his bowlers the best he could. 43 off 6 became 32 off 5 became 25 off 4 became 33 off 3 became 19 off 2 and when the final over came 13 were needed.

With his three main bowlers all bowled out, Perren took it on himself to deliver the last over himself.

His first ball went the distance and all of a sudden seven were needed off five deliveries. The next four deliveries were excellent and with the fifth ball he ran out Holt who was backing up too far in the search for quick runs.

Three for a win for the visitors, two for a tie and a single or dot ball would clinch victory for the Boro.

Perren bowled the last ball, Florentine drove it hard to Schofield who picked the ball up excellently at long on – the throw came in, Perren was convinced it was going to hit the wickets... it didn’t and he then fumbled the ball as Gilrane scampered home for a tie.

An excellent game of cricket by two evenly matched teams. Next for the Boro is a visit to East Lancs in a fixture that marks the halfway stage of the season.

IN Division 1, Haslingden travelled to Burnley and suffered a defeat by 13 runs.

The home side had won the toss and opted to take first knock, Ockert Erasmus topscoring with an unbeaten 86 as they made 233-9 off their 50 overs.

Haslingden made a good contest of it, Mini Bhada hitting 52 and Sehan Weerasinghe 89, but they were all out for 220 in the last over of the day.

Elsewhere, Clitheroe won by two wickets at home against Lowerhouse and Darwen beat Greenmount by 28 runs at their Birch Hall ground.

Perhaps the most comfortable victory of the day was at Walsden, where the home side smashed Middleton by 117 runs.

BACUP celebrated a 12-point return as they cruised to victory against Colne at Lanehead.

The home side took first knock after winning the toss and put together a competitive total of 222-9 off their 50 overs.

Charlie Gansler was desperately close to a well-deserved century, falling on 94 to a Geeth Kumara delivery.

Matt Collinge (51) and Jake Sunderland (25) also played their part as Bacup reached 222-9 off their allocated overs, Kumara finishing with 5-55 off his 15 overs.

Colne were dismissed for 152 in the 41st over with Bacup sharing out the wickets in a strong team display. The win lifted them into sixth place.

Rawtenstall suffered a heavy loss at home against East Lancashire.

The home side won the toss and fancied a bat on the Worswick Memorial Ground surface – however, at 10-5 they must have been questioning their decision. Four of their top five batsmen were dismissed with scoring and while Ishaq Hussain’s 47 and some gritty resistance from the lower order gave the total some respectability, 114 all out looked comfortable for the visitors.

And so it proved. James Westhead lost his wicket having scored 70 off 79 balls, Niall Boyle (33no) and Kasun Ekanayake (2no) easing East Lancs home.

Rishton fell short in their run chase on home turf against Enfield.

The visitors won the toss and chose to bat, Yasir Ali (66) and Tiarnan Hamill (74) best with the bat for them as they made 281-7 off their 50 overs.

Rishton’s response opened well with Richard Fox (42) and Haseeb Hameed (71) putting on 87 for the first wicket, Fox the first to fall.

Haseeb quickly ran out of partners and once he fell with the score 142-5, the writing was on the wall for Rishton and they were dismissed for 189 in the 49th over.

Leaders Crompton stretched their advantage at the top with a fourwicket win against Accrington at the Property Shop Arena.

The home side had won the toss and elected to bat first, Ben Gorton dominating the innings with a fine 113 which included 18 fours.

But support was hard to come by, Stuart Crabtree making 19 while Jacob Clarke hit 35 and stuck around for 73 deliveries.

Accrington made 206-9 off their 50 overs, Muhammad Zuhaib claiming 5-34 for Crompton.

In their reply, the visitors’ openers Jake Hoosen and Denis Louis put on 66 for the first wicket, Louis falling for a quickfire 47 off 31 balls which included ten fours.

Hoosen’s 26, an unbeaten 55 from Mohammed Jamal and Mohammed Hamza’s 42 not out saw Crompton over the line.

Great Harwood fell well short in their run chase at Nelson. The home side won the toss and batted first, making 270-7 off their 50 overs with Neil Thompson (95) and Lewis Bradley (66) impressing. Matt Oddie was best with the ball for Great Harwood, taking 4-37 off seven overs.

In reply, Thikshila De Silva’s 56 and Chris Oddie’s unbeaten 66 offered Great Harwood hope, but they were always behind the required run rate.