Foxes spinners in good form

by Sam Chambers

An outstanding bowling display from Leicestershire’s James Sykes saw Lutterworth cruise to victory over fellow South Leicestershire team Market Harborough in the latest round of Everards Premier League matches.

Sykes decimated the visiting Harborough batting line-up to claim figures of 6-20 and reduce the away side to 87 all out.

Lutts then wasted little time in racing to 92-5 in 20.4 overs to pick up a five-wicket success.

A quickfire half-century from Sykes’ county teammate Aadil Ali helped Kibworth take another huge step towards the title.

Their seven-wicket win at Hinckley, allied with nearest challengers Sileby falling to a three-wicket loss at home to Loughborough, saw them extend their lead at the top of the pile to 65 points.

The leaders won the toss and invited Hinckley to bat first; the hosts seeing Ben Coddington (83) and William Hunt (53) compile half-centuries in their total of 220-7 with Charlie Page-Morris’s 4-39 the pick of the bowlers.

In reply, Kibworth skipper Matt Craven (106*, 99b) was ably aided by Ali (52, 46b) on his way to a whirlwind unbeaten century that propelled his side to 223-3 as they chased down the runs inside 36 overs.

Sileby, meanwhile, came out second best when hosting neighbours Loughborough, despite a half-century from Leicestershire’s Jigar Naik.

Loughborough skipper Dips Patel won the toss and elected to field before Naik (61) and Dave Torr (53) led Sileby to 226-6, Tom Wells bowling an economical spell of 10-2-29-1.

The visitors reached their target with three wickets in hand, opener Anish Patel’s 71 and 49 from Shyam Patel comprising the majority of their 230 runs. Naik took 1-42 from eight overs.

Sileby’s disappointment was compounded by the fact that Loughborough’s win saw them move above their hosts to second in the table.

Elsewhere, Leicestershire Academy prospect Sam Evans starred for Leicester Ivanhoe in their home clash with Barkby United.

Evans top-scored with 77 at the top of the order as Ivanhoe made 233-8 before Ian Kirk blazed 116 from 96 balls in Barkby’s response.

The away side were moving along nicely at 163-4 from 32 overs before the weather intervened and, with no further play possible, they would eventually have to settle for a winning draw as they dropped to fifth in the table as a result.

It was a similar tale in Syston’s home match with Barrow, who, led by a strong unbeaten batting performance from County off-spinner Rob Sayer, claimed a winning draw from the rain-affected contest.

Barrow’s Rajneesh Kumar (8-0-58-5) picked up a five-for, and Sayer took 1-42 from ten overs, but useful knocks from wicket-keeper Ram Ghuman (49), Charles Wootton (57) and Carl Fourie (64) saw Syston amass an imposing 260-9. 

However, Sayer (87*) and skipper Ramesh Kara (67) had put Barrow into a promising position at 203-5 before rain brought an early end to proceedings, leaving them disappointed that they were deprived of the chance to pull further away from the drop zone.

One side looking to make up ground on Barrow was basement side Earl Shilton, but instead they suffered defeat at Rothley Park by a margin of seven wickets.

Shilton could only muster a total of 131 all out, which was knocked off in fewer than 21 overs by Park, Irfan Karim’s 46 the top score of the chase.