Newham put nearest rivals Redbridge to the sword to take big step towards title

Newham moved 64 points clear at the top of the Essex County League Premier Division after a crushing win over nearest rivals Redbridge at Flanders Field.

The visitors chose to bat after winning the toss but Muhammad Farooq (5-25) ran through their top order in one of the best spells this season to leave them 50-7.

Arjun Rana (2-8) and Adnan Khan (2-36) nabbed braces, before Aamir Shaukat wrapped up the innings on just 79 in the 20th over.

And Robin Bansal (20), Kashif Iqbal and Adnan Ashraf (29) all made it into double figures as Newham raced to a seven-wicket win in just 6.1 overs, leaving them well clear of second-placed Grays with five games remaining.

Captain Amit Midha said: “It was a great performance. We need to take this attitude and performance into every week and look to remain unbeaten throughout the season. Our key has been unity and execution. We look to keep this up.”

Unbeaten Newham visit defending champions Barking next weekend, seeking a 13th win to take a step closer to the title.

The seconds slipped to 65-3 at Shane Moss, despite early runs from Nadeem Muhammad (29), but recovered to 158-4 thanks to Imran Mohammed’s confident 50 on an increasingly unpredictable pitch, before more wickets fell.

Narsing Manchallawar (37) and Karthikeyan Ganesan (26) hit the ball to all parts to lift the score to 237 in 44.3 overs.

And after the Shane Moss openers started aggressively to get ahead of the run rate, Zaheer Khan and Nishant Mittal hit back to dismiss the attacking top order.

Karthikeyan Ganesan rattled through the middle order leaving the hosts eight down and 90 runs short, but Jasbir Singh held firm and had support from Zubair Bhatti (27) and Irfan Ismail (26).

Singh (56 not out) ran out of partners as Newham won by 26 runs, with Khan and Ganesan taking four wickets each.

The thirds put Hawks into bat and they reached 127-3 thanks to Gary Lord (74), but good bowling and fielding meant they were all out for 223 in the 42nd over, as Oshada Pahalwithanage took three wickets and Haris Latif and Mohammad Abbasi two each.

Newham made a steady start through Ravi Veshala (27), but the scoring rate slowed as the middle order fell cheaply, while Akhil Talaulikar (34) held firm.

Muhammad Aamir (33) and Anuj Sharma (64) countered, though, and Zubair Shah (28 not out) hitting the winning runs.