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Horspath cave into defeat

26 Jun 2023

HORSPATH caved into a 94-run defeat at home to second-placed Gerrards Cross in Home Counties Premier League Division 2.
Faced with the Bucks club's 257-7 dec off 56 overs after putting them in to bat, the home side were well placed at 114-3 with 28 overs remaining to challenge the visitors' total.
Opener Jimmy Phillips and Sri Lankan Minhaj Jalill were well set after putting on 65 for the fourth wicket, but then Horspath lost their last seven wickets for 49 runs to collapse to 163 all out.
Left-arm seamer Jon Denning broke their stand shortly after tea, which had been taken with the hosts 101-3, when Jalill was caught by James Dalby for 30.
Three runs later, Phillips, who had batted well to make 46, was lbw to the Gerrards Cross captain and from there Horspath folded tamely.
When Touseef Ahmed, who had hit a maiden Home Counties half-century last week, was adjudged lbw for 15 to be the last man out there were still 12 overs left.
Denning finished with 3-33 off 13 overs with Dalby taking 2-14 and Finn Collins 2-25 as all six of the Gerrards Cross bowlers picked up wickets.
The visitors' total had been built on a 180-run third-wicket partnership between Fahim Qureshi (92) and Chris Marrow (83).
They came together with Gerrards Cross 30-2 after Max Smith (2-33) had removed openers Jasraj Grewal and Feroz Baig.
But Qureshi and Marrow then proved a huge stumbling block with the latter the first to bring up his half-century with a single.
They took the score to 140-2 at lunch with Qureshi reaching his fifty shortly after the resumption with a boundary.
Their stand was finally broken when Will Hawtin produced a smart stumping off Horspath skipper Will Eason to dismiss Marrow, who faced 123 balls and hit 12 fours.
The visitors had looked set for a 300-plus total, but Horspath's bowlers pegged them back with Jalill's off-spin accounting for Ben Lane and then Qureshi, who was closing in on a century when he was bowled. His runs came off 126 deliveries and also included 12 fours.
Eason (2-69) and Jalill, who was the pick of the home attack with 3-45 off 13 overs, picked up another wicket apiece before Denning declared with the visitors' total proving well out of reach as Horspath's batting blues continued.
The defeat leaves Horspath in ninth place ahead of next Saturday's trip to Thame Town, who are one place and eight points above after their three-wicket defeat at Oxford Downs.