HURLEY secured a comfortable victory over THE HETAROI at Shepherds Lane on Sunday.
Following early morning rain, the covers were removed to reveal a dry track and the visitors opted to bat first on winning the toss.
Tight bowling by Ross Brown and Mo Basharat restricted the opening partnership to 32 from 12 overs when Basharat re-arranged Jon Ball’s wickets. In the next over Pennington edged Scott Taylor to George Lewis in the slips.
Mike Price proved the mainstay of The Hetaroi’s innings with an unbeaten 65 sharing in a third wicket partnership of 66 with Dan Hughes-Morgan. When Morgan was trapped lbw by Henry Graham in the 27th over there were 100 runs on the board.
Hurley took the opportunity to use all their bowlers as Alex Norris impressed with his left arm seam. The Graham brothers combined to dismiss Ed Woods caught in the gully by Henry off Joe Graham’s bowling at 121-4.
With wickets in hand the visitors were able to accelerate towards the end of their innings, adding 82 from the last nine overs to declare on 203-4.
Hurley’s opening pair of George Lewis (37 from 27) and Shoaib Kayani blasted 50 from six overs before Lewis was bowled by Andrews. Kayani, playing his first game of the season showed no signs of rustiness as he built a fine innings to keep Hurley in control.
Joe Graham was then bowled by Abel to leave Hurley on 66-2 before Scott Taylor joined Kayani in a partnership of 56 for the third wicket.
Despite the loss of Taylor and Henry Graham, adjudged lbw to Abel in consecutive overs, Hurley always looked in control. At the start of the final hour 82 runs were needed for victory and a partnership of 68 between Kayani and Mike Walton put the result pretty much beyond doubt by the time Walton was given out lbw to Price.
Kayani reached his century with a straight six and Ross Brown finished off the match in style with a six over the pavilion to give Hurley victory with six overs to spare.
THE HETAROI
M Pennington, c Lewis, b Taylor
15
J Ball, b Basharat
8
M Price, not out
65
D Hughes-Morgan, lbw, b H Graham
25
E Woods, c H Graham, b J Graham
12
M Denning, not out
42
Extras
36
—
TOTAL (4 wkts)
203
HURLEY
S Kayani, not out
109
G Lewis, b Andrews
37
J Graham, b Abel
4
Sc Taylor, c Abel, b Woods
10
H Graham, lbw, b Abel
4
M Walton, lbw, b Price
12
R Brown, not out
16
Extras
13
—
TOTAL (5 wkts)
205
Best bowling: J Abel 2-74.
