SANDYFORD STAY IN TOUCH WITH PROMOTION SPOTS BY BEATING LEADERS
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SANDYFORD seconds boosted their own NSSCL Division Five promotion hopes by defeating leaders Stafford 2nd XI.
Visitors Sandyford impressed on their way to amassing 178-7 from their 40 overs at Riverway. Philip Robins led the way with 53, which contained eight fours, with Joe Ward (41) and Steven Lowe (40no) also in good form. Kannan Bhuvanachandran took two wickets.
Kshitiz Mahajan replied with 53 and there were solid efforts from Mark Evans (22) and Oscar Bell (16).
But double strikes from Preston Davies, Andrew Pender and Asachveer Singh-kaller saw the home side all out for 159.
Sandyford sit in third place, sitting 16 points adrift of the promotion spots.
Second-placed Audlem cut the gap to leaders Stafford to 12 points with a five-wicket win at the same venue.
Audlem prevailed against Stafford’s third team to put the pressure on the table-toppers.
Stafford thirds saw V Achanya (42) and J Glayshier (32) shine in their 150-9. S Swift took 4-18. Audlem paced their chase well and crossed the line with two overs to spare.
D Blatherwick top-scored with 34, backed up by d Parkinson (25no), I Shaik (24) and C Shenton (18no). M Baker and M Das shared four wickets.
Cheadle thirds pocketed a sevenwicket triumph at home against Moddershall & Oulton fifths. Cheadle were set 157 for victory, but Saleem Mir’s triple blast saw them reduced to 47-3. However, there were no further alarms for the home side as halfcenturies from Jon Evans and Harry Bonehill guided them past the post.
Evans’ 62 not out featured nine fours and one six, with Bonehill smashing three boundaries and five sixes in his unbeaten 56. Caverswall seconds overcame a poor start to win at their Leycett counterparts.
Caverswall slipped to 27-5 in the early stages at Park Terrace, but rallied superbly to reach 157-8.
That was thanks to Nick Buxton’s 51, which included six fours and two sixes, plus 42 from Chris Baranowski.
Finley Waterhouse claimed 3-20 for Leycett and there were a couple of scalps for Liam Bedson.
Liam Bedson (38), Charlie Griffiths (33) and Lucas Bedson (23no) fronted the Leycett run chase. But they fell just short on 138-8 as David Tooth picked up 3-30 and Steve Bishop and Evan Hill shared four wickets.
Meir Heath seconds were sixwicket winners at Porthill Park fourths.
Fahzad Aziz’s 3-7, plus double strikes from Azaan Maroof and Imran Khan, limited Porthill Park to 115-9 from their 40 overs.
Lucas Turner contributed 51, with Esa Mohamed adding 22. Muhammad Raja then compiled an excellent 73 not out to see Meir Heath to their target with more than six overs to spare. Stone SP thirds’ bowlers were in fine fettle to set up their win at Whitmore seconds. Chanaka Ekanayake and Mikey Parker snared 4-10 and 3-12 respectively to leave Whitmore all out for 78.
Jason Don and Seneth Kukulevithana both made 20. Alex Holland struck twice on the resumption, but Stone SP were not to be denied.
Kai Owen constructed 40 not out to seal a fine victory for the visitors.