Hanford take advantage of rivals' defeat to move to top of the table

HANFORD are the new leaders in NSSCL Division Three after winning on the road at Onneley.

- Chris Travers

Previous incumbents Eccleshall seconds were beaten at home by Leek, which allowed Hanford to leapfrog them into top spot.

It wasn’t a completely straightforward afternoon for Hanford, though, as they fell to 17-4 early in their encounter with Onneley.

However, the high-fliers stopped the rot and Uttam Das’ 35 helped to steady the ship.

It was then up to Muhammad Afzaal, Ashish Kohli and Abid Hussain to run through the gears as Hanford reached the halfway stage on 272-8.

Afzaal was at the forefront of that recovery as he made 100, which featured 12 fours and three sixes, with Kohli adding 62 and Hussain chipping in with 41.

Adam Edwards claimed 3-52 for the home side and there were a couple of wickets for Mirza Ausaf.

Ausaf then top-scored with 40 in Onneley’s chase, with Jake Short (38), Thomas Washington (35) and Nav Hans (23) also in fine fettle.

But Dan Hall's 3-23, allied to double strikes from Hussain and Dilmon Jacob, saw Onneley bowled out for 201.