After consecutive defeats, Norden got their season back on track on Saturday with a comfortable 7 wicket win at 1st division newcomers Greenmount. Some probing new ball bowling from Scott Butterworth and Usama Malik kept things tight early on after skipper Hashum Malik had chosen to bowl first and it was Malik who got the breakthrough when Jack Harrison chipped to Greg Butterworth at mid-off. Home professional Chesney Hughes was uncharacteristically subdued early on and, after being dropped on 1, he struggled his way to 14 from 47 balls before falling to an inside edge from an excellent delivery from Sami Waheed and an even better catch from Lee Crabtree. Waheed’s spell of 2 for 14 from 7 overs was excellent and there was no let-up from the visiting attack. Andrew Kerr was the leading light in the Greenmount batting performance but he didn’t manage to find any real support and wickets continued to fall regularly. There were 3 for Greg Butterworth, 2 for Ashar Zaidi and Scott Butterworth came back and picked up 1 for himself, the least he deserved for 2 good spells. Kerr was the 9th man out for a classy 81 but 163 all-out felt well below par on a such a small ground.
Norden got off to a much better start in reply than they had managed in the previous 2 weeks and it was only an injury to captain Malik’s ankle that broke the opening partnership between he and Josh Tolley. That moment was about as concerning as it got for the Stags as Tolley and firstly Greg Butterworth and then Zaidi, raced toward the target and a beautiful straight 6 from Tolley finished the job with just over half of the 50 over allocation gone. Tolley ended on 69* and the 12 points were in the bag.
1st XI Scorecard: https://norden.play-cricket.com/website/results/5000170
The 2nds also notched up a maximum point victory, defeating Colne by 3 wickets at Stag Park. Zishan Zahid picked up his first wickets for the club as Colne’s innings never really got going. Kafeel Ali took 3 for 18, Mo Munawar 3 for 38 and Oli Holt 2 for 18 to bowl the visitors out for 133. The chase was far from straightforward though as a collapse meant 40 without loss quickly became 56 for 5. An aggressive 25 from Mohammed Omar swung the momentum back to Norden and after he was dismissed, the experience of Holt got Norden close and Ali gave him the support he needed to finish the job. Holt finished 32* to finish a good all-round day for him. 2nd XI Scorecard: https://norden.play-cricket.com/website/results/5000424