Skipper salutes key duo as Spalding hit summit

Spalding Town 2nd (187-4) beat Woodlands (106) by 81 runs

Ansar Hussain and Mike Kearns made the difference again as Spalding Town 2nd stormed to the top of South Lincs and Border League Division One on Saturday.

The pair both scored 76 as Spalding chalked up 187-5 batting first at Woodlands, before Tanveer Hussain (3-8), Jimmy Hook (3-34) and Sanj Tott (2-26) helped dismiss the hosts for 106 on 27.2 overs.

In truth, it was a minor miracle that the game actually went ahead in Peterborough.

A ball wasn’t bowled until 2pm, with heavy rain in the morning looking almost certain to see the game abandoned.

Town made the short trip fully expecting the game not to go ahead – and skipper Steve Norris has admitted that he didn’t expect anything other than a washout.

He said: “In my wildest dreams I didn’t expect a ball to be bowled – but thanks to the opposition and the umpires, we ended up playing the match in beautiful sunshine.

“Ansar and Mike have been the cornerstones of the batting so far this season with both continuing their rich vein of form.

“It was also nice to see Jimmy bowling some good pace at such a young age.”

Having lost the toss and been placed into bat, Town got off to a poor start as they lost the wickets of both Mick East (5) – bowled to a fine ball from Sarath Updadhya – and Jimmy Clarke (1).

That served in uniting the in-form Ansar Hussain and Kearns at the wicket at 21-2 – and they set about sharing a vital 141-run partnership.

Although the outfield was very wet and slow, both batsman ran beautifully between the wickets with many twos and threes being run and the run rate.

Kearns reached his 50 first with a beautiful cover drive and took the score to 168 before being bowled by the returning Updadhaya for an excellent 76.

After Hussain reached his fifth 50 of the season the team were treated to a Ronnie O’Sullivan type innings, as he turned into a left-hand bat after sustaining a pull in his back.

Amazingly, he was still able to caress and thump the ball in equal measure. At the end of the innings he was unbeaten on 76 and helped he team reaching a brilliant 189-4 off their 45 overs.

In reply, Town hit the ground running with the impressive Tott striking twice in his first over.

He got rid of Woodlands skipper Darren Sweary (1), who was stumped impressively by Kearns, and followed that up by bowling Vinit Shah for a golden duck.

Jazly Fareed (11) did his best to get the home side going, but he was soon dismissed by Nohman Ahmad (1-21) as he looked to up the run rate.

Young Hook was then introduced and bowled a good spell, getting rid of Vidit Mat (11), the dangerous Easwaran Shanmugan (27) and James Dessent (14) to see the city team plunge to 74-6.

Tanvir Hussain was introduced to the attack – and the lower order batsman were unable to read him as he picked up 3-8 in five overs.

Some ‘boom boom’ batting saw Woodlands reach the 100 mark at the close, before Updadhya (19) was dismissed by an amazing running diving catch by Hussain to bring the game to an end.