2018 League round-up 7

Barrow Town moved to the summit of the Premier League as they beat Loughborough Town in a top of the table clash.

Loughborough won the toss and elected to field but were met by an in-form Ramesh Kara. Kara, opening the batting, hit 150 from 152 balls (12x4, 5x6) which propelled his side to 262 for nine from their 50 overs.

Ankesh Dunsuclal supported Kara with 31 while Jack Nightingale made 24. Academy seamer Jacob Bailey, who has also represented the Second XI this season, was the pick of the bowlers for Loughborough taking 3-46 from nine overs.

Loughborough were then reduced to 58 for four with Tom Shipman taking three of the first four wickets to fall. Tom Wells and Shyam Patel then added 106 runs and the game was back in the balance. Two quick wickets fell with Patel (57) and Sam Bates (0) to swing the momentum back to Barrow.

Wells was joined by Kyle Saddington and they added 69 but the all-rounder fell for 75 and, six runs later, Saddington was dismissed leaving Loughborough 240-8. They ended up 254 for eight - just eight runs off Barrow’s score.

Sileby and Barkby shared an entertaining game. Sileby posted 245-8 from 50 overs, Liam Kinch top-scored with 71 and was supported by opener Dave Torr (51), as well as contributions from Jigar Naik (27) and Harry Bates (23). Cameron Sharp was the pick of the bowlers, finishing with 3-26 from his 10 overs.

The Barkby reply was solid; opener Louis Botting made 40, No.3 Ben Hollis scored 56 and captain Steve Flowers guided the chase with 69 at just over a run a ball. Flowers and Hollis shared the highest partnership of the innings with a stand of 114. Both batsmen departed and it was left to Conor Percy (14*) and Ben Silver (0*) to see Barkby to a five-wicket victory with 31 balls to spare.

The most comprehensive performance of the week came from Kibworth. They bowled Kegworth out for 94, Matthew Bashford the star with the ball returning figures of 10-4-16-3 and Monik Patel took 2-14 from six overs.

For Kegworth the only real resistance came from Alex Fletcher (24) and extras helped boost the total with 21. Kibworth openers Sunny Patel and Matt Craven guided their side to a ten-wicket victory, the pair finishing 53 not out and 39 not out respectively.

Langtons returned to winning ways as they beat Market Harborough by six wickets. Harborough were bowled out for 100, Matthew White top-scoring with 25 and Joe Gordon making 20. Zuber Patel took 4 wickets for just 13 runs from his 10 overs and Asif Mai 3-18 from 8.2 in what was a superb bowling performance.

Harborough took four Langtons wickets but the chase was never troubled, Sarfaraj Patel hit 30 from 17 balls including seven boundaries, and Soyab Salajee made 28.

Leicester Ivanhoe put in a good performance against Uppingham, running out winners by seven wickets. Uppingham won the toss and elected to bat but were up against it early at 14 for two. Regular wickets continued to fall as Uppingham were bowled out for 111. Academy seamer Alex Evans finished with figures of 10-3-26-2, Sub-Academy seamer James Graham 3-12 and Mitch Carey 3-20.

Joe Kendall and Leicestershire opener Sam Evans added 53 for the first wicket before Kendall fell for 32. Leicestershire wicket-keeper joined Evans the pair adding 20 before Evans fell for 38. Harry Swindells saw his side home with an unbeaten 32 (22b, 6x4) and Jake Beaumont finished unbeaten with 8.

Lutterworth batted first against Syston and made an imposing 291-5 from 50 overs. Wesley Marshall’s fine season continued as he made 87, Alec Hill made 70 and Leicestershire wicket-keeper Lewis Hill added to his 85 in the week for Leicestershire with 53. Syston were then bowled out for 207; Ben Drake made 84 but Marshall’s fine game continued as he took 4-50.

Ateeq Javid spent some valuable time in the middle for Berkswell on Saturday. The all-rounder made 51 and took 1-21 from nine overs as his side secured a winning draw.

* For the very latest news from the Leicestershire & Rutland Cricket League, check out their website HERE