INTELLECTUALS AND ALFAS RETURN TO WINNING WAYS

Madrid ended a poor weekend on the East Coast with another loss, this time at the hands of the much improved Intellectuals of Alicante.

Batting first at the Bonalba ground the home side put on the board a competitive total of 207 for 9 off their overs allocation. Waseem Waris topped scored with 63 and their were sizeable contributions from Tim Richards (32) and Ali Faulkner (28)

Madrid offered very little in the batting department and were skittled all out for just 55 runs. Their was a tremendous spell of bowling from Ibtisam Ahmed, who bagged five wickets for just 13 runs, and Waris rounded off an excellent day for him personally by taking three wickets for 12 runs in a ten over spell that included six maidens.

The 152 run victory gave Intellectuals maximum points and Madrid got just five points. Intellectuals go back to the top of the table, although they have played one more game than second placed Torrevieja. The two clash in the next fixture for both sides.

In the other league two game to take place on Sunday Sporting Alfas II overcame arch rivals La Manga II to record their first league victory of the season. La Manga batted first and scraped to a paltry 117 all out with Waqar Ashraf getting his best ever figures of six wickets for 26 runs for the home side.

Alfas made hard work of chasing down a slim total. After making a bright start with openers Mckinstry and Ward looking well set, they then lost a flurry of cheap wickets to let La Manga back into the game. Young Tyler Brown with a mature innings of 23, and the ageless Bobby Nix with 26 got the home side back on track and Alfas finally got over the line with two wickets to spare. Both clubs now have an identical league record as the second division begins to take shape now that most teams have played two games.