The weekend proved to be a very successful one for both the 1st and 2nd XI teams.
The 1st team were playing East Lancs CC at The Alexandra Meadows. The start was delayed due to a new wicket having to be prepared to allow the match to go ahead, and Rishton having won the toss elected to field. East Lancs found runs hard to come by on a poor wicket, but had reached 26 before the first wicket fell. John Turner was bowled by pro Keiren Grimshaw for 12, quickly followed by fellow opener Suban Jalal caught by Matt Leathert off the bowling of Brad Boddie for 9 with the score on 28.
Wickets fell steadily after with East Lancs being bowled out for 62, with Ali Sartaj taking 5 for 10 off 9.3 overs, ably backed up by Grimshaw and Boddie who took two wickets apiece.
Rishton made a steady start scoring 27 runs before a mix up saw Luke Eddleston run out while on 8. Again runs were hard to come by on this track with wickets falling on a regular basis but with josh Whitehead and Richard Fox both scoring 11 and 15 extras Rishton reached the required target of 63 in the 26th over.
Meanwhile back at Blackburn Road the 2nd’s were taking on East Lancs 2nd XI with Rishton winning the toss and also electing to field. Aaron Greaves and Harvey Leathert opened the bowling and got of to a great start with Greaves taking thee wicket of Pardesi, given out lbw with the score on 1. Leathert then dismissed Hussain in the third over, caught by Matt Nuttall with the score on 6.
East Lancs were eventually bowled out for 110, with Leathert and Greaves taking 2 wickets apiece.
Rishton had the worst start possible when Nuttall was dismissed caught and bowled by N Ahmed with just one run n the board. Rishton’s batsmen then settled into the match with M Ahmed and M Khan putting on 22 for the second wicket going on to score the required runs in the 34th over. Archie Kavanagh (37), Greaves (20 no), Ahmed (12) and Khan (11) all contributed to a score of 113 for 7 to win the game.
Sunday saw the 1st’s taking on Colne CC at Blackburn Road. Rishton won the toss and elected to field.
Colne started well with openers Shakeel and Rimmer putting on 50 runs before the first wicket fell when Shakeel was dismissed for 18. Fellow opener Rimmer went on to score 53 before being dismissed with the score having moved on to 95. Tillotson (35) and Kumara (57 no) put on 64 for the third wicket, with Colne going on to post a score of 188 for 7 off 48 overs.
Rishton got off to the worst start with the bat when Josh Whitehead was bowled by Senapathi for 0 the second bowl of the innings and the Luke Eddleston was caught and bowled, again by Senapathi for 1 with the score on 11.
However a brilliant partnership between pro Keiren Grimshaw and Brad Boddie saw 146 runs being scored before Grimshaw was bowled by Kumara for 87, having hit 8 4’s and 2 6’s. Boddie was then joined at the wicket by Jack Hilton and a 34 run partnership saw them finish on 191 for 3 with 3.2 overs to spare. Boddie finished on 74 no and Hilton 20 no.
The 2nd XI meanwhile were playing Church and Oswaldtwistle at The West End Ground.
Church won the toss and elected to field, something that looked to have been a good choice when the first 4 wickets fell with only 3 runs on the board. However Muhammed Maroof and Harvey Leathert steadied the ship, putting on 62 for the 5th wicket when Maroof was dismissed for 29. With Leathert going on to score 32, Aaron Greaves 38 no and Danny Leathert and Jake Sanderson chipping in with 13 and 10 runs, Rishton finished on a respectable 144 for 9 off their 45 overs.
Church had a steady start to their innings with three of their top four batsmen reaching double figures and at one point they were 61 for 4. However some excellent bowling from all the Rishton players saw Church being bowled out for just 73 in 35 overs.
Star of the match has to be Sahan Senapathi who took 7 for 22 from 11 overs, and also Muhammed Maroof needs a mention for his 0 for 10 off 12 overs which included 6 maidens really tying down the Church batsmen.
Huge congratulations to both teams for the weekends results.