Arthington 1st XI – 262/9 45 overs	71 all out – Ledsham 1st XI 25.5 overs
Ahmer Sadiq: 54 Himanshu Satyawan: 41	Umar Farooq: 12-3-29-5 Inam Piran: 2.5-1-7-3

The early weeks of the 2025 season have seen several influential Arthington players step up and give match winning performances, either with the bat and the ball. In their latest victory against bottom

side Ledsham, however, it was a real team effort that brought them the win with contributions across the team. On a drizzly day that had showers threatening throughout, the visitors to the ACG won the toss and elected to field.

Arthington are no strangers to batting first and they adapted well despite a slightly changed batting order. Ahmer Sadiq laid a solid platform as the opener, and batted well to reach his first fifty of the season including 5 fours. In fact, by the time he was bowled as the fourth wicket, the score was 148/4, Sadiq having seen three batting partners come and go with Ritankar Chakraborty justifying his move up the order with a nice innings of 21 including four boundaries. Sadiq’s 73-run partnership with Arthington captain Naveed Andrabi was also the highest of the innings.

Andrabi was dismissed in the very next over, the 33rd of the innings, but an over which also contained 21 runs. His 41 runs came in quick time and included 3 fours and 2 sixes. His luck was not with him today as the catch he offered stuck. The partnerships continued, despite the occasional set-backs, and Himanshu Satyawan and Umar Farooq, two of the home side’s star performers this season, put on 36 in just over four overs until Satyawan was run out, having also made 41. Naveed Piran picked up the scoring baton but watched on as Umar Farooq was clean bowled for 36 in the 43rd over. Arthington kept trying to send the ball to the boundary at the cost of a couple of late wickets but they were very satisfied to close the innings on 262/9 after their 45 overs.

The home side’s spirits were further buoyed in the early stages of their fielding innings when quick Ledsham wickets fell at the top of the order leading to a score of 20/3 after a ninth over that saw two LBWs awarded in quick succession, much to the discontent of the visitors, the first two of a total of five scalps by Umar Farooq. Such is the impressive form of Arthington’s all-rounder in recent times, he continued and completed a 12-over spell without a break, taking a further three wickets and dispatching most of the home side’s top and middle order. All three were catches, twice from Satyawan Himanshu and once from Farooq himself. Another incredible bowling spell ended with figures of 12-3-29-5.

Amongst the Farooq masterclass there was a wicket apiece for Naveed Piran and Rahul Khode, but none of those three had been able to remove the Ledsham captain and opening batsman, Joshua Ware, who had batted nicely for his 45 and had seen seven different batting partners dismissed before him with the score only 71. The 26th over, the third by Inam Piran, turned out to be the last of the contest as he took three wickets in just five balls, including the key one of the opener, assisted by catches from Farooq and Kamrosh Khan, either side of rearranging the stumps. Ledsham all out for 71 meaning Arthington were the victors by 191 runs.

The win sees Arthington retain the top spot in the Division 1 Ebor table and they are still the only undefeated side of the twelve. Next week, the 1st XI play away against Scarcroft.

2nd XI summary – Away against Darley

Arthington 2nd XI – 109 all out 36.5 overs	113/1 – Darley 2nd XI 25.3 overs
Steve Potter: 22 Geoff Barker: 22*	Luke Seaborne: 6-2-12-1 Riaz Piran: 5-2-12-0

 

Away from home, things started out badly for the Arthington 2nd XI when they lost the toss and were put in to bat on a wicket that resembled the outfield and then got worse as their rearranged top order were soon back in the pavilion.

Alex O’Neil showed glimpses of coming to terms with the difficult wicket and the Darley bowling, reaching 20 runs including 3 fours but an effort to score a fourth went skyward and he was well caught at mid-on. Umer Khan, Zaid Anwar and captain Luke Seaborne had a lot less impact on the scoring, managing just 11 runs between them.

There was a brief revival between the middle order of Steve Potter and Geoff Barker as they combined for 42 runs until an ill-judged swipe across the line resulted in Potter being bowled for 22 including 3 fours. Barker remained at the crease unbeaten for the rest of the innings but much like the improving weather conditions, the runs had dried up.

The remaining five Arthington batsmen could only manage 13 runs between them as a combination of good bowling, an excellent catch and general misunderstanding of the pace of the pitch proved to be everyone’s downfall. Barker finished unbeaten, also on 22 and including 3 fours, but the innings fell some way short of a good score, despite the conditions. All out for 109.

In reply, Darley subdued the opening spells of Joe Seaborne and Riaz Piran which proved ineffective. The Darley openers played with caution but ruthlessly put away any loose bowling, meaning that despite minimal risk to their wickets they were well ahead of the required rate of scoring. Captain Luke Seaborne saw some joy in his spell as he was able to bring some life out of the pitch and beat the bat on several occasions. His persistence was ultimately rewarded with the only wicket of the innings when a ball speared into the batsman’s pads before cannoning into off-stump.

At the other end, Dougie Jones also impressed in his six-over spell. A reduction in pace in comparison to Piran seemed to gain the respect of the Darley pair still at the crease and Jones’ overs were mostly economical, though, unfortunately, he was unable to bring about a wicket.

As the innings drew to its inevitable close, Will Sparling was handed the ball to see if he could unsettle the batsmen. The ploy almost worked, with what turned out to be the final ball of the innings, as a full ball was launched straight back over his head. Luke Seaborne, running to his right in front of the sightscreen, however, was only able to parry the ball goalkeeper style into the sightscreen behind, meaning a six was scored instead of a wicket and the match was ended. Darley finished on 113/1 after 25.3 overs.

It is hard to say what could have happened had the toss gone the way of the visitors instead of the hosts, but it certainly seemed a more important toss than most. A fourth successive defeat for the 2nd XI sees them sit just above bottom place in the table. With plenty of games still to play, however, there is still every chance of a mid-season surge up the table with a few wins. Next week, the 2nd XI come up against Bishop Thornton at the ACG.