Joe Fletcher's 2nd XI continued their winning start to the season with a convincing 8 wicket win over Whitburn, the NTCL 3rd XI also got back to winning ways with a narrow 3 wicket win over Newcastle Super Kings II's. however the 1st XI lost by 41 runs against Seaham Harbour. The NEPL 3rd XI's first fixture of the season was cancelled due to the heavy rain on Sunday. Read on for Saturday's match reports.
NEPL Premier Division - 1st XI v Seaham Harbour (a) - Lost by 41 runs - Match Report by Phil Haves
In the absence of Belly due to family commitments Max took over the reigns and having won the toss asked the hosts to bat. He then immediately got to work with the ball by bowling Shurben in the first over as he offered no shot. Gale and Burnham had added 84 to the total before the former became the first of Sam’s 4 wickets. Debutant Woody had Allan dropped first ball who then proceeded to move the score to 164 along with Jack Burnham who batted beautifully in reaching 91 until Lee, in the middle of a tidy spell, bowled him. Lee made it 2 in 2 as he trapped home skipper Pattison LBW. Allan reached his half century as wickets fell regularly at the other end but when he was dismissed soon after reaching 50 the innings ended as Harbour were bowled out for 248. Sam 4, Lee 3, Max 2 and 1 for Mark Watson (Harpo) were our wicket takers. Unfortunately Woody damaged his knee whilst fielding and was unable to take any further part in the game.
Our reply got off to a scintillating start as mainly due to the courtesy of Dave the home sides overseas professional, Junaid Khan, saw his first four overs disappear for 47 runs. Having posted 71 with Rory for the first wicket Dave unfortunately holed out to long on for 46 (3x6, 5x4). When Rory followed for 42 with the score on 98 we lost a further 4 wickets cheaply and slumped to 122/6. Max (29) and Sam (47) brought us right back into the game with a brilliant partnership of 81 however once Sam was dismissed and with Woody unable to bat we were eventually dismissed for 207 finishing 41 runs short.
A disappointing result saw us come away with 8 points for our efforts and we go again on Saturday when Chester le Street are the visitors to NBMS Denton Bank.
NEPL 1st XI scorecard v Seaham Harbour (a)
NEPL Division 2 - 2nd XI v Whitburn (h) - Won by 9 wickets - Captains Match Report by Joe Fletcher
Another very strong performance for the 2s on Saturday against a very strong Whitburn side.
Having lost the toss and being asked to field, we really restricted Whitburn throughout the innings with our spin attack, which accounted for 43 of the 48 overs bowled. Notable contributions consisted of:Peter Jones with an economical spell of 2/22 from his 10 overs, Aaron Armstrong claiming 3/33 from his 10 overs. Special mention also to Ayush Chakraborty with 3/26 from his 10 overs, including both openers. With Jayam Patel (1/28)(10), and Oliver Spedding (1/11)(3), leaving Whitburn 148 all out.
In our pursuit of 149, the top order avoided 40/3 for the first time this season, and in turn, our first 100 partnership of the season led by Ben Mussett and Jayam Patel (60* & 58) ensured we reached our target of 152/1 with over 20 overs to spare.
That result leaves us with 3 wins from 3, with only Chester-le-Street matching us, who we have next week in a huge clash at the top!
NEPL 2nd XI scorecard v Whitburn (h)
NTCL Division 5 South - 3rd XI v Newcastle Super Kings (h) - Won by 3 wickets - Captains Report by Chris Pounder
Saturday saw 3’s face Newcastle Super Kings in their first game at home after two away fixtures.
After losing the toss we were asked to field first and a tight opening spell form both Seb and Naz restricted the Super Kings openers. It wasn’t until the 1st change in the 11th over that the opposition lost their first wicket at 23. There would be a partnership of 44 for the 2nd wicket before Adam Hasan would take the first of his two wickets followed by Harsh Patel getting the first of his 3 removing Kalidasan for 4 leaving Super Kings 74/3. A partnership of 37 followed for the 4th wicket which was quickly followed by wickets 5 and 6 to leave Super Kings 111/6 the first of those three wickets was the dangerous Priyadharshan who put a dent in Adam’s figures in his last over but Adam deservedly got his 2nd wicket removing him for 57. Super Kings would eventually be bowled out for 162 with the pick of the bowlers being Harsh Patel 3/14 from 5 Seb Fletcher-Woods 3/29 from 8.4 and Adam Hasan 2/58 from 9.
In reply the Hill made a fairly solid start before losing two quick wickets to leave us 25/2 before losing a third at 31. Naveed would be next to go with the score on 50 shortly followed by Harsh to leave us at 64/5. Dave Haxon joined Hassan Ahmad in the middle but would soon depart for 8 followed by Has himself for 17 leaving 3’s 85/7. An impressive partnership of 78 between Naz Habibi 45 not out and Adam Hasan 27 not out would see 3’s over the line. Although not without controversy as Super Kings were aggrieved that what appeared to be a snick behind by Naz wasn’t given by Rash.
A good win for 3’s and and a promising early start to the season.
NTCL 3rd XI scorecard v Newcastle Super Kings (h)
