Date: Sat 29th Aug 2009 @ 13:00

Ground: Leicester Road, Hinckley

Type:  League : Leicestershire County Cricket League - Everards Leicestershire Premier Cricket League

Scoring:  Standard

Toss:  Hinckley Town CC - 1st XI won the toss and decided to bowl

1st XI

Fall Of Wickets

9-1 Andrew Smith (Tom Burton-3*); 48-2 Tom Burton (Dipesh Patel-10*);
130-3 Dipesh Patel (Sundeep Patel-39*); 163-4 Aamir Mahmood (Sundeep Patel-49*);
177-5 Charlie Morgan (Sundeep Patel-58*); 197-6 Simon Renshaw (Sundeep Patel-72*);
225-7 richard jackson (Sundeep Patel-90*); -8 ;
-9 ; -10 ;

Bowling

Hinckley Town CC - 1st XI

Fall Of Wickets

8-1 Shiv Thakor (Charles Wootton-1*); 31-2 Safi Ahmed (Charles Wootton-6*);
46-3 Charles Wootton (Matt Craven-3*); 57-4 Darren Shaw (Matt Craven-6*);
91-5 Mike Scully (Matt Craven-32*); 95-6 Richard Hutchings (Matt Craven-36*);
132-7 Callum Wilson (Matt Craven-53*); 134-8 Ross Clarke (Matt Craven-53*);
135-9 Anthony Statham (Matt Craven-54*); 145-10 Andrew Rowley (Matt Craven-57*);

Bowling

Match report

Hinckley went into the match last Saturday over 30 points below their nearest rivals in the fight for relegation and needed as many points as possible from the match against Kibworth to give them a fighting chance of survival from the Everards Premier Division. In the end though, Town only collected 4 points – Kibworth batted first and scored an excellent 238 for 7 and Hinckley were then bowled out for 145 to lose by 93 runs. 

The hosts, Hinckley won the toss and decided to bowl against last year's National Knockout winners, Kibworth. The home side made a decent start too taking their first wicket in the 2nd over following a brilliant diving catch by wicket keeper, Charles Wootton off the bowling of Shiv Thakor. The batsman to depart was Kibworth skipper, Andy Smith for only 5. Hinckley knew that they would need to build on this early wicket as Kibworth have a strong batting line up, but unfortunately, for the fielding side, they were unable to do this with Burton and Dipesh Patel keeping the opening bowling attack at bay. The 2 batsmen fended off the opening bowlers, however, during the 13 over, Anthony Statham made the breakthrough when he had Burton caught at point by Darren Shaw for 27. Ross Clarke was the next bowler to try his luck and he bowled with more consistency than the previous weeks and his 5 overs only went for 15 runs. However, the Kibworth batsmen were starting to take control with Dipesh Patel and Sundeep Patel building a useful partnership. They passed the 100 with ease and the partnership was at 82 when in the 31st over, Callum Wilson took the 3rd Kibworth wicket as Dipesh Patel was caught by Mike Scully standing at mid wicket for 40. This made the score 130 for 3 after 31 overs and Hinckley now needed to take some more quick wickets to gain control over the game. The Kibworth batsmen though had other ideas and they started to increase the scoring rate, in particular, Sundeep Patel scoring freely. He passed his half century, made from 74 balls and although, wickets were falling at the other end, Kibworth were still building a useful total. Safi Ahmed was the man taking the wickets, with the spinner taking 3 wickets from overs 38 to 46; however, he was unable to prevent Kibworth scoring in excess of 200. Nevertheless, Ahmed finished with the best bowling figures, when he completed his spell of 13 overs taking 3 wickets for the loss of 62 runs.Andy Rowley took the last Kibworth wicket in the penultimate over when he had Richard Jackson caught by Matt Craven for 8, however, by now, the away side had built a substantial total and with the assistance of Sundeep Patel they finished on 238 for 7 from their 50 overs. Patel finished on 97 not out, only just short of his century and his score was made from just 109 balls, which included 11 boundaries. 

So, Hinckley set off in their pursuit of Kibworth's total knowing that they would need to score at nearly 5 runs an over. The key to this would be to keep early wickets in hand, but this was a game Hinckley really needed to win so a losing draw would not really be good enough. The home side though started off in disappointing fashion with Shiv Thakor's wicket following in the 3rd over after he was bowled by Aamir Mahmood for 7.Safi Ahmed joined the other opener, Charles Wootton at the crease and during the 7th over, Ahmed threatened to score some quick runs by scoring 11 off Mahmood's 4th over. However, from the first ball of the next over, bowled by Simon Renshaw, Ahmed was trapped on the crease and was adjudged LBW for 13. Wootton and Shaw were out shortly afterwards for 14 and 4 respectively and so it was beginning to look like another struggle for the Leicester Road team.This made the score 57 for 4 with Matt Craven and Mike Scully at the crease. If Hinckley were going to win or even get close to Kibworth's 238, then these 2 batsmen would undoubtedly have to build a substantial partnership. They started off reasonably well with Craven hitting a few quick boundaries, however, Scully was struggling to get going and in the 24th over, he was out when he was bowled during Jackson's first over for 3. Hutchings was the next man to go as he was out for a duck – Jackson's 2nd victim and this now reduced Hinckley to 95 for 6 in the 26th over.Craven was still standing tall at one end and new batsmen, Wilson certainly started well enough by keeping the Kibworth spinners at bay. He supported Craven well for a time and in the 32nd over, Craven scored a deserved half century, when he hit a flowing drive through extra cover off Jackson – his 50 coming up off 80 balls. Wilson continued to scored steadily, but it was quite clear that he wanted to increase the scoring rate and his frustration started to build. So much so that during over 36, Jackson bowled a ball down the leg side that Wilson went to hit over deep square leg, however, he only found Dipesh Patel, who took a neat running catch to dismiss the batsmen for 15.This breakthrough for Kibworth was to prove crucial and from being 132 for 6, Hinckley fell to 145 all out. The tailenders mostly falling to the spin of Richard Jackson, however, Ross Clarke can consider himself unlucky was he was adjudged run out, which looked a controversial decision. Jackson finished with figures of 5 for 20 off 8.4 overs – a spell which was crucial to Kibworth's victory. Craven was left stranded on 57 not out; with a lot of the batsmen guilty of poor shot selection.

So, Hinckley have now given themselves a lot to do to escape relegation. They have 3 matches left to preserve their Premier League status and this set of matches will start this Saturday, when they travel to fellow strugglers, Syston. They know that if they lose at Syston, then they are more or less consigned to their fate