Loughborough Town involved in T20 drama

ON SUNDAY, Loughborough Town travelled to Lutterworth for the NKO T20 first round where they faced Lutterworth and Kibworth.

Lutterworth beat Kibworth in the first match of the day and then it was Loughborough up against Kibworth.

Kibworth won the toss and elected to bat first, and the openers did not disappoint as they put on an opening stand of 110 in 13 overs before Jackson was dismissed for 50.

Paige-Morris and Hayat then put another 50 partnership in the next five overs before Paige-Morris was dismissed for 74 and the innings closed with Kibworth recording a total of 185-3 from their 20 overs.

In reply, Loughborough wanted to make a positive start and openers Anish Patel and Ben Mike reached 80 in seven overs before the first wicket fell, Mike caught at point for 25 off the bowling of Norton. Norton then dismissed Kenny for only seven.

At 11 overs Loughborough were at a score of 102 and Saddington and Patel managed to put a partnership together of 36 before Saddington was caught behind of the bowling of Whitemore. When Anish Patel was dismissed for 91 in the penulitmate over it left Loughborough needing nine runs from the lasr over of the match.

Norton picked up both new batsmen with the first two balls of the over before Bhalla hit a boundary. The Loughborough innings finishing on 181 off the 20 overs but as the umpires walked off the pitch they decided that the Kibworth bowling took far too much time and decided to award the opposition six penalty runs which gave Loughborough victory.

The second T20 clash was now effectively a quarter final against Lutterworth who won the toss and decided to bat on a wearing wicket, making 133 for 4 from their 20 overs.

In reply Loughborough started badly with Ben Mike dismissed first ball bowled by Nathan Welham, Kenny was dismissed for 10 and was swiftly followed as Saddington also made a score of 0. Things then got worse as inform batsmen Patel was dismissed for 28 off 28 balls with the score on 45-4.

This was was soon 78-6, before a great partnership of Nil Patel and J Bailey as they scored 33 in just 14 balls to give Town hope. Loughborough needed 16 of the final over and J Bailey hit a huge six over long on, but two run outs saw Loughborough finish desperately short by just three runs with Bailey unbeaten on 32 from just 19 balls.