Arthington edge out Church Fenton on the ACG highway
Arthington 1st XI – 289/7 44.1 overs | 286/4 – Church Fenton 1st XI 45 overs |
Hari Krishan: 93 Umar Farooq: 89* | Naveed Piran: 12-1-64-2 Umar Farooq: 7-0-42-1 |
After the disappointment of their last victory being overturned, the Arthington 1st XI were keen to retain their now fragile spot at the top of the Division 1 Ebor table. Their next opponents were Church Fenton, with whom they had had a thrilling encounter in the reverse fixture, which saw them secure victory by a single run.
The wicket was a batter’s paradise and served up a run-fest, much to the disappointment of both sets of bowlers. Church Fenton’s captain won the toss, and the visitors opted to bat first and started the innings in steady fashion, reaching 43 before the fall of the first wicket, by means of Naveed Piran uprooting the stumps, looking to continue his excellent form with the ball this season.
However, with honours even after the first ten overs, the next thirty belonged to the away side as they amassed an exceptional second wicket partnership of 163. Six different bowlers were tried by the Arthington captain Naveed Andrabi, including himself, but none could prevent the Church Fenton opener from reaching an excellent hundred, that included 20 fours and a six. However, in the same over that the milestone was reached, he lost his wicket, after Brahm Singh dislodged his bails. The other set batsman, James Davidson, who had reached 68, soon followed via a catch from Umar Farooq to reward the tireless Naveed Piran with his second wicket.
Any hope of a late collapse faded when the fourth wicket partnership established itself with a flurry of boundaries from the Church Fenton number four, who reached an unbeaten 36 from just 19 deliveries and the number five, who played in similarly aggressive fashion, ultimately losing his wicket, bowled, having reach 26 from 17. There was time for a late cameo of 12 from just five balls before the end of the away side’s innings, which finished on 286/4 after their 45 overs.
It looked a tall task for the hosts, albeit on a flawless batting wicket, to reach the target, but Ahmer Sadiq and Hari Krishan set the tone in the early stages, scoring quickly to keep the rate well in check. After ten overs, the score had reached 71, but the tenth over also saw the fall of the first wicket as Sadiq was caught for 39, from just 31 balls including 2 fours and 3 sixes. The first wicket signalled a period where the visitors were well on top and they also saw the back of Naveed Andrabi and Himanshu Satyawan, who only made small contributions to the innings this week. Andrabi was bowled and Satyawan was adjudged LBW to leave the score on 86/3 after the 13th over.
Brahm Singh and Hari Krishan’s 52-run partnership helped to get things back on track, but the scoring rate had slowed slightly and by the time the former’s wicket fell, the score was 138/4 though over half of the overs had been used. Therefore, the arrival of Umar Farooq, who had already rescued an Arthington innings on more than one occasion this season, was very timely, and he wasted little time to eat into the target with some well struck boundaries.
The new pairing was together for 17 overs and managed to form an excellent 121-run partnership during their time at the crease together. Farooq played the role of the aggressor, but Krishan was the one who lost his wicket, having just entered the nineties, when he was caught behind. His innings of 93 was crucial at the top of the order and contained 10 fours and 2 sixes. The contest had already ebbed and flowed with no clear victor emerging, even in the latter stages, but the visitors certainly must have considered themselves favourites when two more wickets fell soon after, to leave the hosts seven down. Naveed Piran was caught without scoring and Syed Hussain was bowled with the very next ball.
At the end of the 43rd over, with 12 balls left, the score was 272/7. Farooq was on strike with the new batsman Rahul Khode for company. Together they took 11 runs from the penultimate over, leaving five runs required for victory. But the scenario was still a precarious one for the home side, particularly as the Church Fenton captain had opted to bowl himself in the final over, having only conceded 19 runs from his first five-over spell.
That meant little to Umar Farooq, who blasted a six from the very first ball of the over to secure an excellent victory for Arthington. The all-rounder finished the innings unbeaten on 89 from just 67 balls including 6 fours and 6 sixes. Another superb, match-winning knock. The victory keeps Arthington on top, just two points ahead of second place Colton Institute, despite losing two games fewer. The league title is still in Arthington’s hands, but they likely need to win all of their remaining fixtures, which will be no small task. Next week things do not get any easier when they take on third placed Drax away from home.
2nd XI summary – Away against Lofthouse & Middlesmoor
Arthington 2nd XI – 124/5 21.5 overs | 120 all out – Lofthouse & Mid’moor 1st XI 24 overs |
Ritankar Chakraborty: 36 Zaid Anwar: 29 | Luke Seaborne: 6-2-29-3 Riaz Piran: 6-1-31-3 |
Arthington’s 2nd XI continued their new-found form when they travelled to the idyllically situated Lofthouse & Middlesmoor in a clash of the bottom two sides in Division Four. As is the case most of the time, Arthington’s captain lost the toss but probably still got his desired outcome when the hosts opted to bat first.
In the early stages, the opening pair, in particular the home side’s captain made great use of the short boundaries at third-man and backward-point for a few easy boundaries, but Arthington’s young, talismanic opening bowler, Riaz Piran, soon saw to it that his score of 13 was not improved as he rocked back leg-stump with a seaming rocket. Leg-stump was the unfortunate victim once again for Joe Seaborne’s first dismissal to send back the remaining opener with the score 22/2. A useful partnership for the third wicket was then formed involving the most influential player from the first match between the two sides back in May.
It looked like Matty Collinson was set to repeat his near-century as he took both Piran and Seaborne for boundaries back over their heads. With the aggressive number three looking on, however, his batting partner was dismissed by Piran, whose fondness for hitting the stumps had not relented and a troublesome 42-run partnership was ended. Joe Seaborne then caught back up with Piran in the wickets column, via the only catch of the innings courtesy of a good, low slip catch by Luke Seaborne.
In the following over, a match-winning moment likely occurred when Collinson, who had reached 33 at this stage, was cramped for room by the excellent Piran and his attempt at a pull shot resulted in an under-edge that diverted the ball perfectly onto the bails. A very unfortunate end to a promising innings as the hosts had seen their score go from 64/2 to 67/5 in a matter of overs.
With the top order disposed of and the superb opening spells of Seaborne and Piran having come to an end, the change bowling of Luke Seaborne and Ritankar Chakraborty, following a permanent transfer form Arthington’s 1st XI, set about finishing the job of bowling out the home side. It was unclear what had happened initially to bring about the sixth Lofthouse dismissal as an inside edge appeared to have missed everything to make its way harmlessly towards fine leg, only for it to be later observed that a bail now rested on the turf. Clearly, the ball had struck the leg-stump via the bat though it was comical how long it took everyone to realise.
84/6 soon became 84/8 as Chakraborty took two wickets in quick succession; his challenging line and length bowling ultimately becoming too much for the Lofthouse & Middlesmoor tailenders as both saw their bails removed. The Arthington all-rounder conceded just nine runs in his five over spell and appears to be a useful new addition to the 2nd XI’s bowling ranks.
A frustrating and unlikely ninth wicket partnership was then formed that added 36 runs to the home side’s score before it was broken. The home side’s number eight, sporting shorts as opposed to the traditional whites, executed several textbook cover drives to the boundary, much to the dismay of Arthington’s Luke Seaborne, as several of the shots had been taken right off the stumps. The Arthington captain ultimately required the assistance of the batsman to dislodge him, as an inside edge from another attempted drive through the covers found instead the stumps to end a good cameo. Two full-length deliveries fired at the stumps later and the innings was over. The home side finished 120 all out.
Arthington were hopeful of repeating their successful chase of a week prior, which was a very similar target, and Alex O’Neil and Umer Khan got things off to a positive start, reaching 31 in only a few overs. O’Neil then attempted a drive down the ground, targeting the short, straight boundary but missed the ball and was bowled. Khan then called Steve Potter through for an impossible single and the wicketkeeper batsman was easily run out by a direct hit from mid-off.
After Aditya Khatua had been adjudged LBW, Umer Khan had failed to divert a straight ball away from his stumps and Gareth Meredith’s attempt to send the ball into orbit resulted instead in the stumps being disturbed, the 2nd XI found themselves in a bit of trouble. The score had not yet reached the halfway point of the chase, standing at just 59, yet half of their wickets had fallen.
The job of rebuilding the innings fell to debutant Ritankar Chakraborty and Zaid Anwar, who were seemingly unaffected by the collapse that had preceded them and calmly played themselves in before exploiting the ground’s dimensions with some excellent boundary hitting. Their 65-run partnership was constructed in quick time and saw Chakraborty strike 5 fours and 2 sixes on his way to an unbeaten 36 and Anwar, who took 16-runs from the final over of the contest, finish on 29 including 2 fours and 3 sixes.
The latest victory has moved the Arthington 2nd XI outside of the bottom two in the league, albeit barely, as only net run-rate separates them and Pannal. However, they can look to extend their winning run next week when they host Harrogate at the ACG.