EARLEY ran out as victors in a closely contested match which saw the visitors take the points with a 14-run win margin.
The hosts Binfield won the toss and elected to field first. The opening batting pair for Earley built solid foundations for their side as they surpassed the half century mark as a pair and moved onto 58 before the first wicket was taken, with Junnaid Khan falling on 38.
Binfield had to be patient in the field as Earley moved onto a century of runs before they gained a breakthrough by removing Umer Malik lbw for just ten runs.
Earley’s innings began to unravel having made a promising start as they lost their talimatic batsmen Mo Shamoon just shy of reaching his half century, as he fell for 46. Their innings then looked to be in danger of a collapse as Steve Andrews picked up a second wicket of the match to dismiss Nilanjan Chakraborty for a duck with the score at 111-5.
Venu Pasikanti takes the wicket of Ram Devrakonda
Andrews bowled brilliantly to help reduce the total as he took the next two wickets to take his match tally to four. With only ten players at their disposal, Earley only had nine wickets to defend and managed to take their total to 144 before Neil Jones removed the final batsman, an underwhelming target after a strong start to their innings.
But Binfield made a disastrous start to their run chase as Earley claimed two early wickets thanks to Mo Shamoon. He bowled a troubling delivery to remove Adam Carson for a duck and then stayed alert to run out Isobel Carson (2) to make an ideal start to the innings for his side with Binfield on 7-2.
Sebastian Atkins lost his wicket on three runs to leave Binfield in a poor position at 28-3, but they managed to make a recovery to chase down the target with Ram Devarakonda at the crease.
Earley got the crucial wicket of Devarakonda (34) to move into the driving seat in the contest with Binfield on 75-5. But with the match hanging in the balance , Rahul Gupta displayed a gutsy innings to contribute 27 runs to put his side within sight of victory.
Earley then had Binfield in trouble as David Mapes bowled captain Chris Jones out for a duck with the score at 120-8.
Rahul Gupta batting.
With just 15 runs needed to snatch victory the match could have swung either way and Earley made sure that they would seal the points as Shamoon bowled out Neil Jones (10) to claim his third wicket of the day.
The win shoots Earley up to fourth place in the division while Binfield sit just behind them in sixth despite playing one more fixture.
Earley batting: Shamoon 46, J Khan 38, Malik 10, Kumar 22, Tubati 2, Chakraborty 0, Desai 1, Pasikanti 9no, Z Khan 3, Mapes 0.
Binfield bowling: Snelling 1-40, C Jones 0-37, Andrews 4-26, N Jones 2-29, Robinson 1-9.
Binfield batting: A Carson 0, I Carson 2, Devarakonda 34, Atkins 3, Nower 7, Gupta 27, Andrews 4, N Jones 10, C Jones 0, Snelling 5, Robinson 2no.
Earley bowling: Shamoon 3-8, Mapes 2-36, Pasikanti 4-33, Khan 0-24, Desai 0-11.
