Arthington 1st XI – 405 all out 43.5 overs	310 all out –Thirsk 1st XI 46.4 overs
Himanshu Satyawan: 281 Rahul Khode: 22	Rahul Khode: 9.3-0-64-5 Sourav Chandolia: 9-0-74-2

Cricket is a team sport at its core, but sometimes it is individual brilliance that can lead a team to victory and that is precisely what happened in Arthington 1st XI’s latest match at home against Thirsk. As an away side, if you dismiss nine batsmen for 124, you could be forgiven for thinking that you had had a pretty good game. The trouble is, if the final batsman scores 281 then you might not see it the same way.

 

Arthington’s captain Naveed Andrabi won the toss and elected to bat first, but just three balls into the innings, the captain edged to slip to be the first of the day’s 20 victims. Abdul Saboor signalled his intentions by striking the next two balls for six, one down the ground and one over square leg but his approach, whilst brave, was short-lived as he was caught at mid-off from his fourth delivery to leave Arthington two wickets down after just eight balls.

 

The introduction of spin proved the downfall of Sajid Hussain as his defensive shot picked out the wrong line and left room for the ball to strike the top of the off-stump and after a brief revival, Umar Farooq lobbed the ball to mid-wicket for a catch although there was some debate as to whether it was a bump ball. The two umpires deliberated and concluded that the trajectory of the ball could only mean that the decision was correct.

 

The score was 58/4 as Rahul Khode joined Himanshu Satyawan at the crease. The latter had quickly played himself in and seemed unperturbed by the pressure of needing to deliver in order for the hosts to post a meaningful total. What followed were a series of one-sided partnerships, with the Arthington lower order still performing an important role of keeping their wickets n tact to allow Satyawan to let loose.

 

The fifth wicket partnership amounted to 102 runs, with Khode contributing 22 before he was bowled, leaving Satyawan just one short of his fourth successive century for Arthington which he reached soon after. Sourav Chandolia added a sprightly 15 before his cut shot was caught at backward point and though Naveed Piran only added two runs, his partnership with Satyawan was 59. Piran was ultimately caught behind as was Harsh Patel soon after to leave the score 252/8 with Satyawan having amassed 171 from just 94 balls at this point.

 

A true 360 player, no part of the ground had been truly safe from Satyawan’s bat swing, but deep cover, straight behind the bowler and deep mid-wicket were taking a particular hammering. The innings had not been without its chances as prior to the century a sharp caught and bowled opportunity was floored before another went down in the same over and the entertained spectators recalled as many as five opportunities where Satyawan was given a life.

 

With just two Arthington wickets remaining and likely still being short of a winning total, the home side’s leading run-scorer needed to use all his cricketing intelligence as well as skill to manage the latter stages. This was evidenced when the ninth wicket partnership with Javaid Hussain reached 111 before Hussain had even scored a run and having astonishingly faced only five balls, including an over that was dispatched for 31 runs. After finally getting some of the strike, Hussain’s first three scoring shots were all boundaries and after a change of overs, Thirsk brought on a right-arm leg-spinner for his very first over. With the very first ball, Satyawan’s incredible innings was ended when his pull shot failed to clear deep mid-wicket and he was caught on the boundary having reached 281 runs including 27 fours and 22 sixes: the highest ever score by an Arthington batsman surpassing 235 by Lawrence Barraclough in 2017. It was also the second-highest score in YPLN history falling just four runs short of the record of 285.

 

Arthington’s batsmen were not quite finished. Even the number eleven Inam Piran fancied a piece of the batting-friendly wicket and struck 3 fours and a six before he was given out LBW for 21, the third highest score of a bizarre innings in which one batsman scored 70 percent of the runs. Arthington were all out for a mammoth 405 with six overs left unused.

 

To their credit, Thirsk went after the target from the very start of their reply, scoring at an impressive rate throughout. Arthington’s opening bowler Naveed Piran was struck out of the attack after going at eleven runs per over in his opening dozen deliveries and Umar Farooq did not fare much better though did make a breakthrough at the end of the fourth over via an LBW.

 

Spin was introduced in the form of Rahul Khode and he brought about the downfall of the remaining Thirsk opener, again LBW, leaving the score 74/2 in the ninth over. Arthington’s leading wicket-taker this season soon had a second following a catch by Naveed Andrabi at a well-placed fly-slip and after a free-flowing 48-run partnership for the fourth wicket, Khode turned provider at mid-off to assist in Sourav Chandolia’s first dismissal.

 

It took ten overs before the next wicket fell but it was an important breakthrough when it did. The Thirsk number three had reached fifty but played across the line to a straight ball from part-time off-spinner Abdul Saboor and lost his stumps. Another bowling change then brought a positive result when the Arthington captain elected to bowl himself and struck with his very first delivery thanks to a catch at long on by Naveed Piran.

 

Despite the set-backs, the away side’s approach was unchanged and another quick and substantial partnership was added for the seventh wicket with the Thirsk number six reaching fifty as well. His wicket fell soon after, Rahul Khode’s third scalp, this time following a catch at long-off by Umar Farooq. Thirsk’s Jake Edwards, batting at number nine, then produced an outstanding innings to bring up a fifty from just 16 balls. At the other end, however, he lost a batting partner to Khode, another catch by Andrabi assisting on this occasion before being dismissed himself from his 18th delivery courtesy of a Harsh Patel stumping with Sourav Chandolia taking the credit for the wicket. The powerful 52-run knock included 4 fours and 5 sixes. 

 

Fittingly, Rahul Khode took the final wicket after a catch was taken by Naveed Piran behind square on the off-side for another five-wicket haul. Arthington won by 95 runs in a complete run-fest at the ACG in a match that saw the best ever batting innings by an Arthington batsman, coming just 24 runs short of outscoring the entire visiting team by himself. With victory, Arthington retain their fourth spot in the table due to the other top sides also winning and it is becoming increasingly clear that the eventual title will depend on the matches played between the top four teams. Those matches will have to wait for Arthington though, as they travel to mid-table Knaresborough next week.

 

2nd XI summary – Away against Pannal

 

Arthington 2nd XI – 177/4 26.4 overs	175 all out – Pannal 2nd XI 38.1 overs
Ahmer Sadiq: 68* Nirav Patel: 44	Muhammad Ali: 5-1-17-3 Dougie Jones: 7-0-31-2

 

The Arthington 2nd XI were hoping to build on a great performance with the bat against Darley the previous week when they travelled to Pannal who sat above them in the division four table before the start of play. Arthington captain Luke Seaborne won the toss amid unusual weather conditions consisting of bright sunshine and misty rain and opted to bowl first.

 

The opening spells of Joe and Luke Seaborne did not quite go as planned though Arthington’s fielders were partly to blame for the high early run-rate and lack of a breakthrough as a simple chance behind the stumps was grounded and several boundaries were scored as a result of poor pieces of ground-fielding. An LBW appeal that appeared to have everything going for it was also turned down.

 

Changes at both ends brought about the first entries into the wickets column with Harsimran Singh striking early in his spell with an LBW that looked a lot more doubtful than the earlier one had been. After battling for 63 balls, the remaining opener then let pressure get the better of him as he played an ill-judged aggressive shot and saw the ball shoot under his bat to collide with the stumps for Singh’s second.

 

42 runs were added for the next wicket but once Muhammad Ali had bowled a terrific googly to unseat the bails and then get very fortunate when a full-toss was hit straight to Ahmer Sadiq at mid-off for an easy catch to dismiss the Pannal captain for a half-century, Arthington dominated the middle overs. Runs came at a premium and just twenty were added for the cost of three wickets with Dougie Jones and Muhammad Ali benefitting from good catches by Joe Seaborne at mid-wicket and Martin Dickinson diving forward in the gulley before Jones hit the stumps with a full delivery that was too good for the batsman.

 

A couple of expensive overs led to a small burst of run-scoring from the hosts reaching 170 before the fall of the penultimate wicket of the innings when the returning Joe Seaborne finally got rewarded for a very unlucky early spell. He took the two final wickets after catches by Nirav Patel and Muhammad Ali. Pannal were all out for 175.

 

Arthington’s early-season woes with the bat appear to have been left behind after another assured display led them to victory in this match. Ahmer Sadiq opened the batting with Aditya Khatua though the latter was adjudged LBW early on. Sadiq and Martin Dickinson then kept the runs flowing without too many risks, combining for a 58-run partnership that ended when Dickinson played inside a straight ball that grazed the outside of off-stump. A pretty good delivery in anyone’s book.

 

With the foundation laid, Nirav Patel then picked up from where he left off in the previous week, belting his first scoring shot over the bowler’s head for a boundary. He bludgeoned his way to 48 from just 22 deliveries including 6 fours and 3 sixes. His main scoring area down the ground was obvious yet the home side could do little to stem the flow. Ultimately, however, blasting the ball down the ground led to Patel’s downfall when long-off held on to a good catch.

 

The fast-flowing partnership had removed the outcome of the match from almost any doubt and had also seen Sadiq reach a measured fifty. His delicate redirection of the ball behind square on both sides of the wicket was in complete contrast to the power game of Patel, but he seemed in complete control while carrying his bat for the entire Arthington innings, finishing on 68 not out. He was not completely faultless, however, as he failed to respond to Zaid Anwar’s call for a comfortable single nearly resulting in the demise of his new batting partner had the fielding been better.

 

Anwar then should have been dismissed again when he lobbed up the easiest chance of the match to square leg who inexplicably dropped it, before, to complete his three lives for the match, Anwar missed a straight ball and was bowled with his side just four runs from victory. Captain Luke Seaborne hit the winning runs with a four over mid-wicket to leave Arthington victorious by six wickets with more than 13 overs still to be bowled.

 

The win sees Arthington leapfrog their hosts in the Division four table and they now boast a positive record of more wins than losses for the first time this season at the halfway stage of the campaign. Next week they play host to Sessay at the ACG against whom they suffered a defeat in the first match of the season.