NWCL T20 Round-Up 2024

By Ray Taylor & Bill Slinger

  • In the Anthony Axford North West Cricket League, Conference side Barrowford caused the shock of the evening by beating Championship side Barnoldswick by 26 runs.
    Barrowford batted first and made 116-7, several batsman made double figures with Aziz Iqbal top scoring with 23.
    Barnoldswick were reduced to 46-8, with only an unbeaten 9th wicket partnership of 42 between W Ahmed(26no) and Nomi Akhtar(10no) at least giving the innings a degree of respectability.
    Barrowford having only lost by 9 runs to Padiham the previous week may well have an eye on a surprise Quarter Final berth with three group matches to play.
    Padiham batted first, with opener Callum Clarke making a run a ball 34, Zander van Tonder made 23 and pick of the bowling was Zadian Muller who took 3-21 in a total of 107-7. Read were reduced to 58-4, but an unbeaten 5th wicket partnership of 52 between Joe Halstead (26 not out) and Ziyad Bhada (27 not out) saw Read home to a six wicket win with more than 6 overs to spare.
    Earby won the toss and elected to bat. They were soon in trouble and were bowled out off the penultimate delivery of the last over for only 76. Luke Hipgrave with 32 made the only significant contribution, the damage being done by Jordan Britcliffe who took 4-17 off his four overs. Ribblesdale wasted no time in knocking off the runs led by opener Kevon Breckles who made 25 not out off 13 deliveries as Ribblesdale passed the target with 13 overs to spare.
    Baxenden looked like they were going to set a big total as they ended the six over power play on 61-1. Opener Blair Walsh made 52 off 32 deliveries including 6 fours and 3 sixes. However once he was out only Ben Gorton with 27 built on the start and they went from 94-2 to 138 all out in the 20th Over. B Sillifant took 2-25. In reply, Whalley lost Stuart Crabtree for just a single. Frankie Jackson 40 off 30 deliveries and Levi Wolfenden 55 off 31 deliveries including 10 fours and a six put on 107 for the second wicket. Despite losing a couple of late wickets they ran out comfortable winners by six wickets with three overs to spare.
    In the local derby, Feniscowles won the toss and elected to bat. They posted a disappointing total of 87-7, Mohammed Jameel top scoring with 23. In reply opener Gerhard Swanepoel 25 and Mike Copeland 33 not out saw Cherry Tree home with seven wickets in hand and three overs to spare.
    Tonge made 116, with Dane Hargreaves top scorer with 55, Alex Kok 3-13 and Ishmael Patel 3-26 for Astley Bridge. From 40-2, Bridge slumped to 71 all out with Connor Lord taking 3-23.
  • Matthew Ready took 4-10 to help dismiss Eagley for 74. Navod Paranavithana’s 47 then steering Blackrod to victory.
Sam Maclaghlan and Madura Madushaka both recorded half centuries in Brinscall’s 156-3, then Divan Von Tonder with 3-25 helped reduce Lostock from 56-0 to 127-7, Sam Barlow making 66 of these.
 
Cameron Murray’s 65 provided the backbone of Kearsley’s 125-8, then Safyan Ahmed took 4-19 to restrict Atherton to 90-7.
 
Jameel Stuart was Farnworth Social Circle’s leading run maker with 45 out of his side’s 147 all out, Tayler Hayes taking 4-32 for Farnworth. Azan Riaz took 4-17 for Circle, but Farnworth ended the evening on 147-9, thus winning by virtue of losing less wickets.
 
Sam Fanning hit 64 in Little Lever’s 177-7, then Walkden recovered from 10-4 to reach 131 with Muzammil Nizam contributing 44 of these. Mukhtar Nasir had the best figures of the day with 5-16 for Lever.
 
Bill Slinger and Ray Taylor