Stour hold their own against leaders (From Dudley News)

Stour hold their own against leaders

1:00pm Thursday 5th July 2012 in Sport

STOURBRIDGE got a winning draw with leaders Penkridge after the weather had the final say in the matter.

Asked to bat first, Stourbridge withstood the opposition’s attack and made 222-9 off their 55 overs.

Openers Matt Bradley and Steve Game were both back in the pavilion with 35 on the board in the ninth over.

Game went to a LBW decision, one of five in the match and Bradley misjudged the line of a delivery on the off stump from the same bowler after making 17.

Audy Alexander, promoted to number three, produced his highest knock of the season, surviving two sharp chances.

When he was joined by Josh Banks, the pair progressed the Stourbridge score to 139 off 23 overs.

Banks’s blossoming innings came to an abrupt end on 45 judged LBW well forward to a length delivery from spinner Shafiq Ahmed. Ahmed claimed the wickets of Alexander LBW (72), and Alex Bingham bowled for six and Jitesh Patel was stumped for six off the spinner Mo Hassan, leaving Stourbridge on 183-7 with eight overs remaining..

The icing on the cake for Stour came from an aggressive knock of 33 from keeper Greg Jones and a stubborn 13 from the off spinner Mikesh Patel at the tail end of the innings. Both went to boundary catches off Ahmed but the 222- 9 off 55 overs was a good score after they were at one stage 160- 5.

Stourbridge’s opening bowling pair Matt Bradley and Patel had the Penkridge batsmen pushing defensively curbing their natural aggressive stroke play.

Patel’s first three overs did not yield a single run and Bradley’s first wicket came in his fourth over.

Number three Rana Hassan hit out and he produced a six and two fours off Patel before he was trapped by the same bowler LBW for 20.

Penkridge progressed to 147 for 3 but neither team was prepared for two heavy showers in the space of 15 minutes.

Conditions became tricky with the slippery ball, the match was curtailed to 51 overs and the adjusted winning target to 218.

Stourbridge could not hold on to three catches in the slippery outfield when play resumed and had to be content with a draw, Bradley taking 4-57 off 17 overs.

The seconds lost away to Barnards Green by eight wickets after being bowled out for 73 in 25 overs.

The match was then delayed for three hours due to rain but when it resumed, Daniel Rees with a score of 46 saw his side home with 46 to pass Stourbridge’s total in 13 overs.

Stourbridge thirds lost by two wickets to Hallow after setting them a total of 118.

Teenagers Umar Khalid and Heran Patel topped the scored with 24 and 20 respectively Stourbridge gave Hallow batsmen run for their money as Shabir Butt ripped through the top order taking 5-59 of 13 overs and it took Hallow until the 27th over to complete their victory. The fourths beat Hallow by nine wickets, passing their target of 128 in only 19 overs for the loss of one wicket.

Their innings was built on an impressive match winning opening partnership between James Springthrope and 14-year-old Thomas Jennings.

Springthorpe was out when on 33 but Jennings remained unbeaten on 62 supported by skipper Alex Dent, not out on 23. Fourteen year old Abergail Houghton who is part of the Wocestershire womens’ squad made her debut in the senior league team.