Cricket report – Audlem Sunday XI

Audlem Sunday X1 .v. Lichfield Nomads

Audlem Sunday X1 made it three wins out of three on Sunday (May 26th) with a narrow two wicket victory over their opponents from South Staffordshire.

For the first time this season the Audlem captain lost the toss and the visitors chose to bat. With one or two regulars missing due to the game being played on a Bank Holiday extra bowlers were draughted into the eleven to improve the balance of the team. With Ikram Azam taking the new ball and young Ewan Farnell bowling from the Field End the visitors found run scoring difficult especially after the early dismissal of one of the openers and forced retirement of no.3 bat due to a torn hamstring attempting a quick single.

With the change bowlers now on the batsmen started to find their form and opener P. Gardener compiled a fine half century aided by some useful contributions from the middle order. On his dismissal ( ct Dave Parkinson bowled Dan Butler) the innings stuttered along with six batsmen failing to trouble the scorer and 32 extras in the eventual overall total of 134 all out in the 38th over.

Audlem were quietly confident at the tea interval with one or two Saturday league players in the ranks but things were far from straight forward in the reply. The Lichfield bowlers set about their task of defending the under par total they had set and the batsmen had no answer to change bowler L. Westwood who finished with fine figures of 5 for 35 off his allocation of 8 overs with three of his victims clean bowled. Useful contributions from opener Dan Butler ( 20 ) consistent middle order bat Nick Hancock (16) and Ronnie Farnell (17) got Audlem within sight of the total but it was left to all rounder Ikram Azam (32 not out) supported by a nervous number10 bat to get Audlem over the line for the loss of 8 wickets.

The full scorecard can be viewed by clicking here.

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