TRINITY MID-WHITGIFTIAN 224-9

OLD RUTLISHIANS 225-4 (S Ganguly 52, J Ritches 51*, S Mohammed 51*)

Old Rutlishians won by six wickets

Trinity Mid-Whitgftian paid the price for a sluggish batting display as Old Rutlishians eased to a six-wicket victory against them at Poplar Road on Saturday, writes Rob Keenan.

It was a story of missed opportunities for the visitors who fell well short of a competitive total after winning the toss and electing to make first use of an excellent batting surface.

Mike Brugnoli gave Mids an explosive start, hitting 24 off just 14 balls but the innings never ignited properly thereafter.

Ben Shorten, hampered by an injury which required the service of a runner, struggled to recapture the fluency he had shown in the previous week and was eventually given out lbw to home captain Salman Mohammed for 19.

Stewart Sales (23) looked capable a big score but his innings was cut short when he fell lbw to Richard Gregory while Rob Warne ran himself out when well set on 32.

The innings continued in similar vein as Richard Nowell, Paul Kember and Nick Cook all failed to capitalise upon promising starts against a bowling attack which was tidy rather than menacing.

Three wickets from Khawar Saleem reduced Mids to 184-9 and they were indebted to an unbeaten 34 from Tony Brugnoli whose last wicket stand of 40 with Mark Roberts lifted them to a respectable if ultimately insubstantial final total of 224-9 off their 50 overs.

Mids knew they would have to bowl exceptionally well to defend that total but they could scarcely have wished for a better start as Gavin Piper had Kevin Molloy caught behind without scoring and then bowled Amir Saleem with his very next ball to reduce Old Ruts to 5-2.

Piper, by far the best of the TMW bowlers on the day, could easily have bagged himself a hat-trick only to see Sandeep Ganguly edge his next ball between first and second slip for four when a catch could easily have been taken.

Ganguly took full advantage of his good fortune, hitting 52 in a stand of 91 with Khawar Saleem for the third wicket as Old Ruts regained the initiative.

Spinner Nowell ended Ganguly’s long innings and then dismissed Saleem caught and bowled to bring Mids back into the match.

However, Ruts were always on top of the scoring rate and never needed to over-extend themselves in pursuit of their target.

John Ritches and captain Mohammed always looked in control thereafter and batted with increasing authority as heads began to drop in the field.

Both batsmen reached half-centuries in the closing stages of the match as Ruts secured a comfortable win with almost eight overs to spare.