SPORTING ALFAS I V LEVANTE I (ECCL PREMIER LEAGUE)

Sporting Alfas Cricket Club Sporting Alfas 1st X1 251 for 7 beat Levante CC 212 for 9.

Levante CC won the toss and asked SACC to set a score. The pitch at the Woodbridge Oval plays tricks for the first few overs and things went in favour of the away side when in the 5th over Brookes then Muñoz fell to Abbas, 13 for 2.

New opener Shahzad and Crompton needed to steady thing down and went along steadily until at 111 (Nelson) things, has occasionally do on this score and with out any real explanation, went wrong and Shahzad on 56 walked past the ball and was calmly stumped by Morgan.

Normal opener Pennick entered the game in a changed role at 5 and helped Crompton get the score up to 175 and 3 batting points but with a 100 looking on Crompton´s luck finely ran out and he was caught by Eaton for 90.

Skipper Fletcher set about the bowling attack with a fresh approach and reached 29 very quickly before becoming Abbas´s third victim, Pennick then took over the batting attack, reaching 43 before being bowled by Burchell. Bash Ali sent in to hurry things along fell to become the last of an impressive 4 wicket haul by Abbas, by far Levante´s most dangerous bowler.

Roper(10) and Perman(2) faced the last over and with 4 batting points in the bag SACC did not give the deserving Levante team an extra bowling point so at tea the points tally stood at SACC 4 LCC 3.

Facing such a total is daunting but Levante to there credit had decided to give it a go, Both openers using the full bat to race to 16 from 3, the Alfas openers then decided that slowing the score rate was far more important than taking wickets and adjusted the bowling lines and stopped the run rate.

In the 7th over Roper got his man with Fareed nudging a rising ball to Brooke in his new wicket keeping role. After 15 overs a deserved break was given and Basherat Ali took only 5 balls to get the second Levante wicket, Eaton edging to Muñoz at 2nd slip. 38 for 2 after 11 overs game on as the power batsmen had arrived in the middle.

Morgan got the score up to 66 before being bowled by Perman. Senhouse looked strong with the ball finding the middle of his bat but not making a score, shouldered arms to Cromptons wrong one and rightfully was adjudged LBW.

74 for 4 after 21 overs, skipper Burchell joined Hunt and the pair looked in good nick until Hunt who might have been thinking about the 50 he had just reached chipped the ball back to the evergreen hands of the bowler P,Taylor.

Fletcher on for his annual bowl yet again got his man, Burchell(27) unexplainably hooked a wide one down the leg side to Perman at short fine leg. Ali then took a good catch at deep cover to gift Fletcher 2 for 22 from 4 overs.

Taylor got the hard hitting Abbas to play at one better left alone, nicely taken by Roper, Srii and Tivey finished off the innings scoring 35 between them but importantly not letting the 9 man bowling attack of Alfas get the extra bowling point.

A great days entertainment for the crowd down in Albir, the cricket was played in good spirits and all enjoyed the sun and hospitality that SACC is renowned for.

Sporting Alfas reached 18 points and Levante 6 points, taking SACC back to the top of the league with an 15 point advantage and two games in hand, next weekend makes the double header against Madrid very important, as two strong performances will almost give SACC the league title.

Saturdays game will start at 1pm all welcome….

Sporting Alfas Cricket Club Sporting Alfas 1st X1 Batting

Levante CC Bowling