JAMIL Faruq ripped the heart out of Burnham's batting with superb figures of 5-29 to set visitors Horspath up for a convincing six-wicket win in their Home Counties Premier League Division 1 opener. Bowling first change, the seamer took advantage of a tacky pitch to destroy the hosts' top order as they were restricted to 184-9 from their 50 overs after being put in to bat. Burnham had 40 on the board when Horspath skipper Will Eason made the breakthrough, with Shabaaz Alam adjudged lbw for 15. After Ian Slatcher bowled a tidy opening six overs on his debut, Faruq came into the attack and made an immediate impact by sending the dangerous Aftab Khan's leg stump cartwheeeling out of the ground to make it 50-2. Two balls later, he had Burnham captain Harveer Gandam caught behind by Robbie Eason. Faruq continued his best spell of bowling for the club by having Raminder Singh edge to second slip where debutant Tom Cosford took a blinding one-handed catch above his head. And it was 71-5 when he claimed his fourth victim with Karan Kumar gloving down the legside and wicket-keeper Robbie Eason dived to his left to take a good one-handed catch. Off-spinner Harrison Ward then got in on the act, with Sulaiman Javed top-edging a delivery to Cosford at mid-wicket for 16, making it 103-6. Left-arm spinner Lloyd Belcher was next to strike with the score on 144 when Harjot Singh presented Cosford with his third catch, this time at long on. One run later, opener Fahad Raja, who had provided stubborn resistance with 62 from 137 balls, which included four boundaries, became Faruq's fifth victim, caught at extra cover by Ward. Belcher (2-33) then trapped Muhammad Haroon lbw, before the last pair of Adnan Malik (23no) and Mohammed Faisal Khalid shared an unbroken stand of 29 for the tenth wicket. Horspath suffered an early setback in their reply when Jamie Stead was out second ball, adjudged lbw to left-arm seamer Haroon. But Robbie Eason and Tom Coleman put on 83 for the second wicket, before the latter fell three short of a half-century on his debut when adjudged lbw to Khalid for 47. Eason was then bowled trying to hit Khalid through mid-wicket for 32, making it 96-3. Horspath had a let-off when Cosford was dropped at deep mid-wicket. However, two balls later Rameez Raja, back as the club's overseas player this season, was adjudged lbw for 29 to off-spinner Khan with the score on 130. But Cosford, who made 45 from 32 balls with two sixes, including one over the pavilion, and four boundaries, and Ward (29no) made sure there were no further alarms with an unbroken stand of 58 for the fifth wicket. And an excellent victory was secured with 4.2 overs to spare when Ward hit Javed over mid-on for four.
Posted by: Russ
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