Town thrash Cropredy

The visitors won the toss and opted to bat first, with opener Tanuj Chopra making a brisk start with two early boundaries. Saqib Hussain struck back though as he clean bowled him for 13 before having the new man caught behind for a duck. After that the scoring slowed, with six runs coming off five overs before Dexter Ainley tried to break the shackles as he hit Joe Clark for 15 off an over.

He didn’t last much longer though as Hussain had him edge to slip for 17 and then removed skipper Joe Fox first ball to leave Cropredy 40 for 4. Ed Somerton was offering some resistance, but the introduction of Kyle Christie into the attack accounted for him thanks to an outstanding diving catch from Adam King as we was dismissed for 12. Christie’s extra pace was causing issues for the new batsmen, and at the other end Clark claimed two wickets in consecutive overs as they looked for a release. At 63 for 7 a mix up confounded Cropredy problems followed by a second wicket for Christie. Tareq Jamil reached 15 as he tried to farm the strike, but he became the final man out when he skied a big hit off Christie as Cropredy were bowled out for 70.Hussain took 4 for 15, Christie 3 for 9 and Clark 2 for 37.

Buckingham came out looking for a quick win, but Joe Sparkes and Fergus Lynch gave them a reality check as they shared three early wickets to reduce the score to 31 for 3. Any fears of a collapse were distilled however by the experience of Dan Blacktopp (19 not out) and skipper King (20 not out) who saw Buckingham home with over 30 overs to spare.

Cropredy

T. Chopra b Hussain 13 (14)

D. Ainley c Bhopale b Hussain 17 (29)

I. Hussain c King b Hussain 0 (4)

E. Somerton c King b Christie 12 (31)

J. Fox*+ c King b Hussain 0 (1)

T. Jamil c Raja b Christie 15 (35)

J. Ayres lbw b Clark 0 (6)

F. Lynch lbw b Clark 1 (8)

J. Sparkes Run Out (Fallon/King) 0 (1)

A. Worby b Christie 0 (3)

J. Coggins Not Out 3 (3)

Extras (1b, 3lb, 5w) 9

Total 70 all out

22.3 overs

FoW: 16-1 (Chopra, 4.1); 16-2 (Hussain, 4.5); 40-3 (Ainley, 10.1); 40-4 (Fox, 10.2); 55-5 (Somerton, 16.3); 57-6 (Ayres, 17.6); 61-7 (Lynch, 19.5); 63-8 (Sparkes, 20.2); 63-9 (Worby, 20.5); 70-10 (Jamil, 22.3)

S. Hussain 7-2-15-4

J. Clark 10-1-37-2 (3w)

K. Christie 4.3-0-9-3 (1w)

J. Gear 1-0-5-0

Buckingham

A. Raja c Ayres b Sparkes 8 (10)

R. Zaman c Somerton b Lynch 7 (21)

P. Bhopale lbw b Lynch 12 (6)

D. Blacktopp Not Out 19 (43)

A. King*+ Not Out 20 (36)

Extras (1lb, 6w) 7

Total 73-3

19.2 overs

FoW: 8-1 (Raja, 2.4); 25-2 (Bhopale, 5.1); 31-3 (Zaman, 7.4)

J. Sparkes 5-1-21-1

F. Lynch 5-1-22-1 (1w)

T. Jamil 5-1-6-0 (4w)

J. Coggins 3-0-14-0 (1w)

D. Ainley 1.2-0-9-0

Buckingham win by 7 wickets.

Buckingham – 25 points

Croperdy – 0 points