Arthington 1st XI – 205/2 23.1 overs	202 all out –Whitkirk 1st XI 47.1 overs
Himanshu Satyawan: 112* Naveed Andrabi: 57*	Naveed Andrabi: 6-1-23-4 Hubashir Hamdani: 13-1-48-3

Despite the latest round of the 1st XI T20 cup competition taking place on Friday, that report will come after the reports on both league matches to remain consistent with the usual format.

After an early season blip, the 1st XI can consider themselves well and truly bounced back into contention for the Championship West title and they were intent on continuing a growing win-streak when they travelled to Whitkirk at the end of a week that had seen near-record temperatures across the whole country.

 

Needless to say, it was going to be an important toss to win and, unfortunately, the coin did not favour the Arthington skipper Naveed Andrabi on this occasion and his side were asked to take the first stint in the heat and to field first. Whitkirk’s innings was a peculiar one and it was a credit to Arthington that they kept the run-scoring to a trickle despite not making regular breakthroughs.

 

Usama Shahid did strike early, at least, when he trapped a Whitkirk opener LBW but another 61 runs were then added before the next wicket fell, this time courtesy of Umar Farooq rearranging the woodwork. But once again, the hosts battened down the hatches and refused to allow Arthington to make further inroads. A one-hundred run partnership formed for the third wicket, which was not broken until the 37th over when Naveed Andrabi brought himself on to bowl and induced an edge for a catch behind to finally dismiss the Whitkirk opener from his 124th delivery.

 

With the score 171/3 and with 13 overs still to play anyone would think that the Whitkirk top order had performed their role near perfectly, laid an excellent platform and could now sit back and enjoy their middle order cashing in and setting a challenging total. Instead, it was the away side that cashed in to mop up the remaining seven wickets for just 31 more runs and leave the hosts way short of their ideal first innings score.

 

New signing Mubashir Hamdani made a key breakthrough in the very next over after that of the Arthington skipper as the other set batsman was clean bowled for 54 from just 47 balls. He managed a second dismissal not longer after in the same fashion before the wickets between him and Andrabi went back and forth as first the captain removed his Whitkirk counterpart thanks to a catch by another new arrival to Arthington Abdul Saboor, before Hamdabi got back in the action with a wicket via a catch by none other than Andrabi who could not keep himself out of the spotlight.

 

Andrabi then struck twice more for his third and fourth wickets via a catch and an LBW before the final Whitkirk wicket came about via a clean bowled from Sourav Chandolia to dismiss the hosts for a below-par 202 all out from 47.1 overs.

 

In reply, the Arthington innings could barely have been any more contrasting than that of the home side with the only real similarity being that there was an early breakthrough, in this case two of them, as Sajid Hussain was finally caught from his thirtieth ball faced having made just two runs before new opening batsman Abdul Saboor’s flamboyant stay at the crease that included a four and two sixes was ended when he missed a straight delivery that cleaned out his stumps.

 

Unbelievably, that was the end of the wicket-taking for the day as Arthington captain Naveed Andrabi and number four Himanshu Satyawan put together a destructive partnership of 178 runs to lead Arthington to victory before the halfway point of the second innings. Andrabi scored at a decent pace at more than a run-a-ball but he was left in the dust by Satyawan who was at his explosive best as he blasted his way to another century in a knock that included 17 fours and s6 sixes. Notably, four of those maximums came in consecutive deliveries as 25 runs were taken from the 17th over after having already struck 4 fours and a six from the 16th.

 

The century milestone itself came up in few than fifty balls and Satyawan would end up unbeaten on 112 from 51 deliveries. The Arthington captain at the other end, as well as admiring his demolition partner, reached his fifty in the 22nd over and struck the winning boundary from the first ball of the 24th. Arthington won by eight wickets with 26 overs to spare and conclude the first half of their season in style.

 

The significant news from elsewhere was that league leaders Colton Institute suffered a defeat to title contenders Studley Royal, meaning that just ten points now separates the top five sides in the Championship West table. Arthington remain fourth, however. Next week they look to do the double over Thirsk who they host at the ACG.

2nd XI summary – Home against Darley

Arthington 2nd XI – 250/5 32 overs	246/8 – Darley 2nd XI 40 overs
Nirav Patel: 94* Luke Seaborne: 68*	Luke Seaborne: 8-2-38-4 Nirav Patel: 8-1-33-2

 

It was also a scorcher at the ACG and after Arthington’s opponents Darley had put on 300 in their last match, it was no surprise that they opted to bat first again upon winning the toss. Their opening pair got off to a flyer with the wicketkeeper batsman, Josh Grange, in particular enjoying the good pitch and favourable batting conditions as he managed a rapid fifty in the opening stages including 11 fours and a six.

 

Things could have been different had a straightforward catch at deep mid-wicket been held off the bowling of Joe Seaborne, but instead the Arthington opener had to endure further punishment. The crucial breakthrough came in the eighth over of the innings, a wicket maiden, when Arthington captain Luke Seaborne breached the batsman’s defence and crashed a ball into the top of the leg-stump.

 

Mercifully, for the hosts, the wicket had the desired impact on the run-rate as it was significantly reduced from an out of control ten an over to something a bit more manageable. The bowling changes were often and necessary in the heat and Ritankar Chakraborty and Umer Khan both bowled economical but unrewarded four-over spells.

 

Nirav Patel was then handed the ball for the first time since joining Arthington and bowled an encouraging first over that beat the bat on several occasions and it was he that brought about the next dismissal of the Darley captain when a thin edge was caught behind by Dave Howard with the score 120/2. Just 16 runs were added before the third Darley wicket fell via a catch at mid-on by Gareth Meredith from the bowling of Harsimran Singh but the away side’s number three and number five then took over for a period, adding 71 runs together at a good rate to breach the 200-mark.

 

It would be fair to say that the batsmen were chancing their arms a bit and they were fortunate that aerial shots were either dropped or landed in open space. Eventually, their luck had to run out and the returning Joe Seaborne finally got a deserved wicket when a towering shot did not have the distance to clear the long-on boundary and found instead Gareth Meredith settled underneath it who took an important catch. With the final ball of his eight overs Seaborne nailed a yorker that smashed into middle stump.

 

Runs kept coming in the closing stages of the innings and the ball was finding the boundary at least once per over. The sixth wicket stand added 34 runs and took the innings into its fortieth and final over. Luke Seaborne bowled it for the hosts and took wickets with his first two balls, each clattering into the stumps. The hat-trick ball resulted in an anti-climactic dot but the Arthington captain did take a third wicket for the over, his fourth of the match, when the final ball of the Darley innings uprooted the leg-stump and left it a yard closer to the wicketkeeper than the other two. Darley ended their forty overs on 246/8. An imposing total.

Though Arthington were undoubtedly in for a tough chase, they can be thankful that their bowlers were able to control things a little better in the final three-quarters of the Darley innings after the carnage that defined the first. With the pitch playing no tricks at all and the temperature in the second innings increasing, if anything, there was every chance of getting over the line.

 

A changed opening partnership of Umer Khan and Ritankar Chakraborty got off to a promising start, with the former doing the bulk of the early run-scoring. It was the latter, however, who lost his wicket first when an edge behind was caught by the Darley wicketkeeper. Two balls later, Martin Dickinson gave his equipment every chance of keeping the ball out when an inside edge from his bat deflected onto his pad before making contact with his stumps.

 

Khan added more runs in a 44-run stand with Nirav Patel, taking the score to 80/2, but when the Arthington opener was bowled for 40 in the 13th over and Malcolm Barraclough missed a straight ball from the very next delivery, the chance of an Arthington victory seemed to be ebbing away and before too long another wicket had fallen when Gareth Meredith also failed to defend his stumps.

 

The Arthington captain Luke Seaborne joined Patel at the crease with the score 89/5. It seemed unlikely that a victory could be achieved but the pair began a prosperous partnership adding boundaries at a consistent rate meaning that the required run-rate remained very achievable. The field spread for both batsmen but the changes were more reactive then proactive as the gaps continued to be exploited. Seaborne scored the bulk of his runs square of the wicket whereas Patel was targeting down the ground, striking a number of sixes in that direction.

 

Patel reach his fifty first followed by Seaborne a few overs later as the partnership reached three figures and even the return of the Darley opening bowlers did little to stem the flow of runs. Upon passing 200, the likely outcome of the match had changed and it was now Arthington’s to lose. With the exception of the penultimate over, the final six overs of the match all contained two boundaries, shared between the two Arthington batsmen. Patel neared his century and there was an outside chance of him making it but those hopes were dashed when five leg-side wides were awarded in the final over. Fittingly, Patel got a faint bit of bat to the final delivery before it raced to the fine-leg boundary and got Arthington across the finish line.

 

Arthington won the match following a superb chase by five wickets and with eight overs to spare. The Darley bowlers were unable to dislodge either part of the 161-run sixth-wicket partnership. Luke Seaborne finished unbeaten on 68 runs from 52 balls including 12 fours and a six. Man of the match Nirav Patel ended on 94 not out from 73 balls with 13 fours and 5 sixes to his name.

The dramatic win did not have an overly dramatic effect on Arthington’s league position, though they did move ahead of Darley into sixth place with one match to go before the halfway mark of this season. Next week they travel to Pannal who share an identical record of five wins and five losses.

 

1st XI cup summary – Home against Heworth

Arthington 1st XI – 218/8 20 overs	202/8 –Heworth 1st XI 20 overs
Himanshu Satyawan: 101 Naveed Andrabi: 44	Sourav Chandolia: 4-0-29-3 Rahul Khode: 2-0-22-1

Less than 24 hours prior to the events of the league matches, Arthington’s 1st XI were involved in the second round of the T20 cup competition where they hosted Championship Central side Heworth at the ACG. After a scorching hot Friday and on a humid evening, Arthington captain Naveed Andrabi was delighted to win the toss and get first crack on the wicket opting to bat first.

 

The start did not quite go as planned though when two early wickets fell. Abdul Saboor’s first ball faced as an Arthington player resulted in a leading edge caught at square leg before Sajid Hussain decided to stop for a few seconds in the middle of the wicket while taking an easy single resulting in him being short of his ground.

 

This brought Andrabi to the crease along with Himanshu Satyawan and the pair took full advantage of the remaining powerplay overs as they began hitting boundaries with regularity. Andrabi, in particular, looked in hungry mood as his quickfire 44 came from just 24 balls and included 5 fours and 3 sixes. However, halfway through the eighth over he edged behind to the wicketkeeper and was dismissed.

 

Like a relay runner handing over the baton, Satyawan took over the role of aggressive run-scorer almost immediately and Umar Farooq’s 28 runs from 25 falls was overshadowed by the volume of boundaries scored at the other end as Satyawan flayed ball after ball to the fence. He would end with 14 fours and 3 sixes in his innings but had to witness Farooq being bowled and Harsh Patel being caught on the boundary from just his seventh ball having already managed 18 runs.

 

Satyawan eventually brought up his second successive century with a four in the 19th over having already reached three figures in the most recent league match. Three balls later, however, he was caught at long-on for 101 from just 52 deliveries having played a huge hand in Arthington’s already substantial total. Javaid Hussain was then dismissed from his first ball to round off an eventful penultimate over.

 

12 further runs were taken from the final over and there was also time for a run out as Rahul Khode was unable to make his ground trying to get the more free-scoring Sourav Chandolia back on strike with an ill-judged two. Arthington’s innings eventually concluded on 218/8 after 20 overs.

 

Though the runs were free-flowing, the score could have been a lot worse for the visitors had their catching and ground fielding not been nearly immaculate throughout the Arthington innings. Apart from a couple of unfortunate drops on the boundary towards the very end of the 20 overs, there was barely a fumble or an overthrow in sight. This was in stark contrast to the hosts who put on a woeful display in the field in the second innings with balls bouncing off at all angles, wild throws missing stumps and fellow fielders alike and at least three simple yet crucial catches being floored that could have seen them comfortable winners in this tie had they been taken.

 

Arthington’s bowling could also be heavily criticised with a couple of exceptions and Heworth got off to a quick start in the powerplay thanks largely to a 22-run over by Usama Shahid that was astonishingly 11-balls in duration due to the number of wides being bowled. Most of the scoring in the first few overs was being done by one batsman with the other struggling to get going and his struggles came to a head when he walked past a Sourav Chandolia off-break and was easily stumped by Harsh Patel.

 

But for about twelve overs, that was all the joy that Arthington got as the second-wicket pairing of Christopher Marchant and Harry Hauenstein added 130 runs for the second wicket. While brutal in its construction it was far from flawless with simple chances being offered and dropped at deep cover, deep square leg and long-on to amplify the Arthington woes. The straight boundaries took a hammering and the house and garden that borders the square boundary on one side of the ground was receiving regular visits in search of recent sixes. It seemed the home side even more than the away side were determined to keep this destructive pair at the crease.

 

Finally there was a breakthrough, which turned out to be a huge turning point in the game. Umar Farooq got under a catching chance at long-on to remove the left-handed Hauenstein for 50 from just 25 balls off the bowling of Sourav Chandolia. Naveed Piran then held another catch, a steepling one that came to him on the opposite long-on boundary and began a sequence of three wickets in three balls: a team-hat-trick. With Andrabi being the bowler for the first with the final ball of the 16th over, the ends were changed and a run out immediately followed when the batting pair attempted a risky two but were beaten by an accurate throw from Rahul Khode on the boundary to dismiss the new man at the crease who had not yet faced a ball. With the very next delivery, the turnaround was complete when a long-hop from Sourav Chandolia that ordinarily would have been heading to the fields beyond the boundary kept low and unseated the bails of the Heworth opener who departed the arena having scored 93 from 55 balls. An excellent innings that included 9 fours and 5 sixes.

 

It seemed that the visitors had largely pinned their hopes on their top order doing the business because from almost down and out Arthington seized back total control. Three more wickets fell via run outs from Himanshu Satyawan and Abdul Saboor, either side of a Harsh Patel stumping off the bowling of Rahul Khode and the run-rate had slowed to a crawl. Heworth did manage 11 runs from the final over via a four and a few hastily scrambled twos, but the asking rate was too much for their tailenders to handle and they fell 16 runs short of the target finishing on 202/8.

 

Arthington can both thank their batsmen for posting such a difficult total and count themselves extremely lucky that their poor fielding display was not more decisively punished. Had the Heworth batting line-up had the same depth of pinch-hitters that the home side’s possesses, as no doubt the stronger sides remaining in the competition will have, this may well have turned out a lot worse.

 

However, with victory Arthington move to the quarter final of the competition where they will play Osbaldwick on the 12th of July, as things stand.