Adil inspires win with bat and ball

RAWTENSTALL enjoyed a fourwicket win against Accrington at the Property Shop Arena.

The home side won the toss and elected to bat first, and they opened up with some promise as Stuart Crabtree (41) and Ben Gorton (54) reached 104 without loss for the first wicket, Gorton eventually succumbing to a Rizwan Shafiq, caught and bowled.

Accrington wickets fell cheaply thereafter, only Jacob Clarke (17) getting into double figures as Accrington clumbled to 160-9 from their 50 overs.

Best with the ball for Rawtenstall was Adil Hussain, who claimed 3-12 off eight overs.

Hussain then anchored the Rawtenstall innings with 50 off 122 deliveries, Abbaas Ahmad (22) and Siraj Hussain (28 providing useful cameos as the visitors reached their target in the 47th over with six wickets having fallen.

Bacup beaten Great Harwood at their Cliffe Park ground, running out five-wicket winners.

Bacup had won the toss and invited Great Harwood to bat first, Thikshila De Silva top-scoring with 23 as the home side were all out for 118, Ben Lord having taken 5-44.

Chiraq Khurana’s unbeaten 45 and Charlie Gansler’s knock of 30 underpinned Bacup’s reply and they reached the target in the 25th over.

Church and Oswaldtwistle were sixwicket victors in the derby clash at home against Rishton.

The visitors won the toss and opted to bat first but found life difficult on a tricky surface, Umar Amin top-scoring with 45 as no less than four batsmen returned to the pavilion without troubling the scorers.

Jack Gaskill played a huge hand in that, claiming an impressive 5-21 over 10.2 overs as Rishton were all out for 118 in the 42nd over.

The track appeeared no better for Church and they were in trouble at 14-3 by the fourth over.

However, Levi Wolfenden’s experience proved crucial as he dug in to make 68 from 99 deliveries, Mohammed Bhada (15no) and Kelan Florentine (13no) seeing Church home in the 33rd over.

At East Lancashire’s Alexandra Meadows, Enfield picked up an eight-wicket win having lost the toss and fielded first.

East Lancs were left to rue their decision to bat first as they found themselves at 24-3.

While Niall Boyle (28) and Chalana De Silva (36) restored some stability to the innings, their total of 140 all out looked below par. Nihaal Basharat was chief tormentor with the ball, claiming 5-31.

Lewis Wright and Alfie Cook put on 88 for the first wicket in Enfield’s reply to lay a solid foundation,

Wright falling first having scored 47.

Cook followed at 94-2, but Zaheer Abbas (37no) and Yasir Ali (16no) eased Enfield over the line.

The only rain on Littleborough’s parade at Nelson was a short, sharp shower around 5 o’clock and to be honest the weather was the only thing that could have stopped Littleborough cantering to victory.

Stars of the show were Travis Townsend who got back in the runs with a knock of 64 and Hamza Ali who helped himself to a quadruple of wickets.

The only downside was the visitors could only muster eight wickets between them.

Having said that Nelson hardly made the effort of boosting their mediocre score in the latter overs. Nelson won the toss and decided to bat on an overcast day as openers Usman Tariq and Matt Pettinger put on 95 for the first wicket after taking up half the overs to amass 76.

First to fall was Pettinger,

bowled neck and crop by Townsend for 46.

Soon to follow were Tariq for 50 and Ashir Imdad for nought both identically caught at backward point by Ryan Miskella off Hamza Ali to leave the home side on 111/3.

Boro captain Clinton Perren rotated his bowlers and young Ben Williamson played a nice little cameo picking up two wickets in his three overs, the second one care of a great tumbling catch by Chris Schofield at mid on.

The innings crawled to 159-8 off 50 overs on an excellent batting track.

Townsend was in no mood to mess around as he smashed 10 boundaries in his 64 against Nelson’s pop gun attack as he and Zac Perren put on 112 for the first wicket.

Zac was in no trouble at all and it was a surprise when he played on for a well constructed 31 to leave the visitors on 113-2.

Watching at the other end was Miskella who then also saw Schofield fall lbw no score to Ahmed 114-3.

Out marched Matt Hernon to the middle and he was in no mood to wait around as he smashed the home attack to all parts, helping himself to 43 not out off just 32 balls which included seven boundaries and one maximum as Littleborough got back to winning ways with a massive 17 overs remaining.

Next up for Littleborough, who remain in second place, is a home game against Accrington on Sunday.

Crompton won by ten wickets in their match against Colne at Glebe Street.

The home team won the toss and elected to field, Colne setting them a target of 126 for victory, Geeth Kumara having topscored for them with 52 off 129 deliveries.

Crompton made light work of the task, openers Jake Hoosen (55no) and Denis Louis (56no) sealing the win in the 19th over.