CROWTHORNE & Crown Wood remain just above the relegation places in Berkshire Cricket League Division 1 as they were defeated by Warfield in a shortened overs game.
With a rain delayed start the game was reduced to 38 overs each innings with Warfield put into bat first. Crowthorne gained an early wicket with as Joe Birkett caught out George Laing on six runs from the bowling of Marshall Miller.
However, Crowthorne weren’t able to capitalise on their early breakthrough as Rehan Akram came to the crease and built a formidable partnership with opening batsman Dan Torry. The pair surpassed the century mark for their side before Torry’s steady innings (33) was eventually halted when he was caught out by Soumya Mishra from the bowling of Ravi Godbole with the score at 103-2.
Graham Morris joined Akram in bat but only managed to score one run from 13 deliveries before he was dismissed by Godbole who picked up his third wicket of the innings to make it 117-3.
Dave McQuitty batting
Crowthorne then finally gained the crucial dismissal of Akram to make the score 149-4. However, a lot of damage had already been inflicted on the scoreboard with Akram scoring a rapid century from just 81 balls, hitting 11 fours along the way.
Warfield finished on 176 runs from the allotted 38 overs as they struggled to tally many more runs after Akram lost his wicket, but thanks to his superb batting performance, the hosts had a decent total to defend.
Crowthorne began their innings with a strong pair at the middle as David McQuitty and Robert Crook helped their side reach a half century of runs before the first wicket fell.
Crook scored the vast majority of the runs that the pair put on, hitting four fours and three sixes before losing his wicket on 43 runs to make the score 53-1.
Warfield followed on from to gain an instantaneous second wicket as the opening partnership were both dismissed in quick succession as the slow scoring McQuitty fell for just seven runs despite facing 37 deliveries.
Rob Crook batting
With Crowthorne in control at 104-4, Warfield stepped up another level to put their innings into jeopardy as some outstanding bowling and fielding allowed them to gain the next three wickets at a cost of just five runs in the process.
With the score at 109-7, the collapse in wickets had put Crowthorne into a tricky spell with a tough task ahead of them. Peter Clarke batted well and scored 19 not out, however with just two wickets remaining after the dismissal of Soumya Mishra (4), Crowthorne fell short of the target with 139 runs totalled from 38 overs as Warfield were victorious.
Crowthorne & Crown Wood bowling: Finucane 1-31, Miller 1-30, Upadhyay 0-21, Godbole 3-46, Baines 1-37, Clarke 1-9.
Crowthorne & Crown Wood batting: McQuitty 7, Crook 43, Baines 31, Godbole 10, Winch 7, Birkett 3, Mishra 4, Finucane 0, Clarke 19no, Upadhyay 3no, Miller dnb.
