Home is Where the Wins Are
Two successive hot sunny Saturdays at Riddlesden cricket club! And two successive victories there – this time the 1st team showing just what they can do. And boy, can they do well when things click.
Batting first, Mohammad Shahnawaz (51) struck the first ball for four and proceeded to rack up a wonderful half century before being dismissed. He was supported well by his top order teammates, particularly Goher Ayoub (17), before Aftab Khan continued his good season with a powerful 46. Haworth pulled themselves back into the match with some good containing bowling for a while, picking up wickets at regular intervals, before Mohammed Gulnawaz (22) provided a late flourish to leave Riddlesden on 188 all out.
Haworth though are a strong team, and the interval brought both congratulations and an air that the bowling would need to be top notch if a win was to be achieved. The thing I noticed immediately was the commitment in the field. The fielders chased everything hard. Sliding and diving stops were made all around the pitch. Pairs chased down balls running towards the boundary, turning fours into twos. Good glove work from Jamie Fullwood saw him pick up three catches. Secondly, the bowling was superb. Mohammed Zulfiqar and Zahir Abbas bowled with pace and accuracy, Zahir in particular looked very quick. And as a result of the bowling and fielding efforts Haworth’s scoring was constrained, which in turn led them to having to try to force the pace later. This opened the door for Aftab to show his bowling ability, picking up 5 for 14 off just 7.3 overs. With a brace for both opening bowlers too, and a run out, the opposition crumbled to just 78 all out.
So, a great win well received by the players and supporters, and coupled with other results moves the team up the league a place and opens a 3 point gap to the relegation zone. But after a performance like this, upwards is where we should be looking!
By contrast, the 2nd team this week lost away at Gargrave. A particularly disappointing result considering they scored their highest total of the season – 191-8 with Dale Pinkerton(46) and Akeel Rashid(49) being the standouts, but admirably backed up by Imran Mehrban(21), Shehryar Hussain(18) and Imran Kamal(17).
Sadly it turned out not to be enough as Gargrave surpassed the target for the loss of just five wickets. Fortunately last week’s victory means that no damage was done in the standings, though a surprise win for bottom club Denholme has closed up the bottom of the table a little.
Next week the 1sts travel to Embsay looking to continue the rich vein of form they have found in recent weeks. The batters will need to perform, and the fielding fully committed again as Embsay seem to be a fairly consistent 150-200 team.
The 2nds are at home against Bradford & Bingley 3rds, the team beaten convincingly this week by bottom placed Denholme. Have to fancy our chances if we can produce a batting performance like this week again – but remember they beat us soundly earlier in the season, and also seem to have a Jekyll & Hyde persona with 4 scores of under 62 all out, but 3 scores over 116.
In summary, lots of positives for both teams this week - let's build on them next weekend.