Umer leads the way with bat and ball as OU stay in title hunt

OU sit third in the standings, on the edge of the promotion spots and made light work of Eggington who have struggled with the bat all season.

Opener Adil Umer set up shop at the top of the order, top scoring for the home side with 66, while Naveed Ahmed also made good progress batting at three, adding 44 to the board. With the rest of the order also making decent runs, OU settled on 266-7.

Umer would then do the business with the ball too, taking 4-40 as Foresters capitulated to 148 all out, handing OU a 118 run win.

Their win sees them close the gap to leaders Westcroft to 45 points, who suffered a surprise loss to Olney Town.

Zaheer Khan hit 109 for the leaders as they scored 220-9, with Iain Keeping leading the way for Olney with 4-48.

But a century in the Olney ranks for Peter Young, who hit an unbeaten 104, guided the home side to 221-7 and the win.

Marcus Goss was just a run shy of his century for North Crawley 2nds (277) but Mick Howe’s 4-52 saw them past Bromham (241) to sit fifth in the table.

Three wickets apiece for Gary Hefferon and Paul Beckett saw Newport Pagnell (178) beat Harlington (112) to move further away from the relegation zone.

Milton Keynes kept the gap at just five points to Division 1 leaders Thurleigh by beating North Crawley by seven wickets.

Brian Tompkins and Nimesh Chavda both took three wickets as Crawley were bowled out for 153, thanks in no small part to Carl Bryce’s 56.

In reply, Chavda was unbeaten on 59 as MK (154-3) eased to victory to maintain pressure on Thurleigh (107-2) who easily beat New Bradwell (105).

MK City beat Biddenham by 88 runs. Yasir Hashmi (66) and Zulfiqar Ahmed (60 not out) fired City to 249-9 dec, before Zaheer Iqbal took 4-25 as Biddenham were bowled out for 161.

New City (215-8) remain second from bottom after losing to Elstow (216-2) by eight wickets.

Shan Dikshan hit 66 for Printers (220-6) who beat reigning champions Eaton bray (219).