Broadwater make it three from four - Littlehampton fall just short against Trinity

After being put in, Broadwater openers Les Ward and Paul O'Sullivan started positively, building on their century partnership last week versus Three Bridges.

O'Sullivan was the main aggressor, making a quickfire 41 from 33 deliveries, the pair putting on 72 for the first wicket in 11 overs. Eagles opening bowlers Hassan Mujtaba and Mohamed Shifan Razick extracted good pace and movement.

Benn Challen joined Ward with the pair taking the total to 97 before Ward fell for a dogged 24. A flurry of Broadwater wickets was to follow with Challen, Mbanga and Ian Gooding all falling cheaply leaving the score at 126-5 on a pitch offering assistance to the bowling side.

Captain Chris Green and overseas player Jeremy Layne set about rebuilding the innings with the pair rotating strike well and Layne punishing anything loose.

Layne brought up his 50 at better than a run a ball and the pair put on a century partnership before Green fell for a well made 31 from 49 deliveries.

Layne continued to attack and was impressive with his ability to find the boundary at will before finally falling caught on the boundary for an excellent 89 from 61 deliveries. Broadwater closed on 259.

Eagles openers Tanveer Haider and Shakir Ali A Hameed made an aggressive start with Tanveer hitting down the ground impressively. Jaynil Patel made the breakthrough, removing Shakir well caught by Layne.

Layne was next to take a wicket as he removed Rehan Hasan for a duck. Eagles continued to lose wickets quickly with Layne the main architect with some impressive swing and seam bowling.

He removed the top and middle order to leave the away side reeling at 74-6, including two in two deliveries. Layne finished with 5-49, his maiden five wicket haul for the club.

Spinner Graham Merritt-Blann and all rounder Mbanga continued the impressive work.

Eagles captain Shahbaz Haroon manipulated the field with precision, passing 50 in the process. Haroon fought at times a lone battle although was supported by tail-ender Hassan Mujtaba, with Eagles taking the score on to 167 before losing their eighth wicket. Mbanga and Merrit-Blann claimed three wickets between them.

It was left to James Horn to take the final wicket, Rehan Ullah falling for 13 to bring the Eagles innings to a close on 193. An excellent team performance for Broadwater taking their tally to three wins and one defeat from the opening four games of the season.

Broadwater travel to Littlehampton on Saturday.

In the same division, Littlehampton CC narrowly lost out in a high-scoring game when Horsham Trinity visited The Sportsfield.

Horsham Trinity elected to bat. Three of the side reached 50 with contributions from Rohan Patel (57), Max Mcateer (63) and Max Rees (76) helping set an imposing total of 284.

Littlehampton fell to 33-3 in reply which made a successful chase unlikely. Mike Askew (61) and Dan Matheson (45) gave the hosts a chance, but they ended 22 short.

Captain Askew said: “We started well with the ball but when you drop seven absolute dollies, at any level, you’re going to struggle to win a game of cricket. We found ourselves 30-3 for the third time this year, and again you’re going to struggle to win from there.

"We done well to get only 20 short with the tail wagging but as a group we haven’t been good enough yet this season. We have a lot who are inexperienced in the ones but I back this group to come good very soon, and get us up the table.”

In Division 7 West, Petworth Park (232/6) beat Littlehampton 2nd XI (231/9) by four wickets.

Littlehampton chose to bat and Nathan Cooper, with a controlled innings coming in at No8, top-scored with 59. Next highest scorer was run machine Maddy Shadab.

In the Park reply Littlehampton were in control until the last ten overs, when Tom Creed (51 off 24) and Sam O'Rourke (45 off 23) took advantage of some dropped catches with some clean hitting to reach the target.

In Division 10 West, Littlehampton’s 3rd XI (125/2) beat Goring 3rd XI (124 all out) by eight wickets.

It was a meeting of two sides without a win at Fernhurst Drive. Littlehampton bowled first and everyone bowled well, with Hamid Sahak taking a hat-trick to finish the innings. In reply Andy Lee opened the batting and scored 68* to steer Littlehampton home.

In Division 12 West (South), the Littlehampton 4th XI (157/6) lost to Middleton 4th XI (158/5) by five wickets.

Littlehampton scored 157, chairman Dan Rive top scoring with 54 off 46 balls. Nick Larking and Zach Taw took two wickets each but Middleton got the win thanks to solid middle order batting.