Bradford League: Overseas star Charitha boosts Cleckheaton but Batley lose out again

Boosted by the arrival of overseas player Charitha Kumarasinghe, Cleckheaton moved out of the Premier Division relegation places with a five-wicket win over Pudsey St Lawrence in the Gordon Rigg Bradford League.
Half century: Cleckheaton's Nick Lindley.Half century: Cleckheaton's Nick Lindley.
Half century: Cleckheaton's Nick Lindley.

Kumarasinghe hit 38 from 40 balls on his first appearance of the season to help his new side to overhaul Pudsey’s 139, but top scorer was opener Nick Lindley, who hit 51, while Ethan Lee also contributed 27no.

A good effort in the field paved the way for what was only the second win of the season for Cleckheaton with Amir Hussain taking 3-32, Andrew Deegan 3-40, Lindley 2-20 and Harvey Booth 2-44.

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Batley are still looking for their first Premier win after they went down by five wickets to neighbours Hanging Heaton who moved up to sixth place with this result.

Electing to bat first, Batley made a promising start in reaching 87-2, but wickets went down at regular intervals to an attack led by James Byrne (3-29) and David Stiff (3-54) and they were all out for 174.

Opener Abdul Wahid top scored with 44 while Kasir Maroof hit 37 and Tahseen Suleman 34.

Hanging Heaton paced their reply well to win with 3.1 overs to spare as Joe Fraser (47no) brought them home after opener Nick Connolly had hit 45 and Callum Geldart 37.

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Josh Marsden produced a fine individual performance, but ended up on the losing side as Hartshead Moor went down to East Bierley in Division One.

Marsden’s 7-59 could not save his side from an 86-run loss as Moor were bowled out for 167 in reply to 253.

Abhishek Paradkar also performed well as he compiled 78, including 10 fours and four sixes, but Daniel Cross proved to be the match winner for Bierley with 6-57 after top scoring with a knock of 62. Adam Brown also hit 52 from 37 balls.

Gomersal slipped down to sixth after Bankfoot chased down their 282-6 to win by seven wickets.

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Defeat was tough on Liam Fletcher, who made 101 for Gomersal, hitting four sixes and nine fours and combined with Graham Hilton (70) for an 123-run opening stand.

In Division Two Scholes went down by 42 runs to Bowling Old Lane.

Joshua Fell and Ali Rafiq took three wickets each, but Bowling’s 191-9 proved enough as Scholes were all out for 149 in reply, Fell (64) also top scoring.

Liversedge continued their upturn in form with a six-wicket win over Gildersome & Farnley Hill in Division Three.

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Shoaib Rehman (70) and William Atkin (41no) led them home after they bowled their opponents out for 176.

Adam Clarke (3-47) was the pick of Liversedge’s bowlers with Fakir Laher, Samar Farooq and Syed Shah taking two wickets each.

Crossbank Methodists held their nerve to beat Rodley by six runs.

At 159-6 chasing Crossbank’s 170, Rodley looked set to win until a late collapse saw them lose their last four wickets for five runs.

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Arshad Jan did much of the late damage with 3-31 after being brought back into the attack after opening it. James Colbourn also claimed 3-54.

Javed Iqbal finished with 7-85 as Heckmondwike & Carlinghow defeated Great Preston by 46 runs

Great Preston were all out for 244 after Heckmondwike elected to bat first and posted a big 290-7 total with Usman Qureshi smashing 14 fours and two sixes in a knock of 90 and further valuable contributions coming from Fahad Imam (50), Adnaan Rawat (41) and Matthew Crowther (30).

There was disappointment for Hopton Mills and Heckmondwike and Carlinghow in the Gordon Rigg Jack Hampshire Cup as they missed out on a place in the quarter-finals on Sunday.

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Division Two side Hopton Mills went down by 89 runs to Great Preston after being left to chase the 308-9 of their Division Three opponents.

Despite the efforts of Michael Carroll (3-52), a big score was posted and Mills were all out for 219, Mark Ashton (37) and Arshad Ali (35) top scoring.

Asad Ejaz hit 36 and Ahmed Waqas Butt 35, but Heckmondwike and Carlinghow were bowled out for 151 to lose by 123 runs to Jer Lane, who had posted a challenging 274-4 score from their 40 overs.