SHINFIELD sailed to a seven wicket victory against Farley Hill as they climbed to sixth position in the table as they sealed their fourth win of the season.
The hosts Shinfield won the toss and elected to field first and were rewarded with a wicket in the first over of the innings as opening batsman Ross Ditchburn was dismissed for four runs.
With Farley on 36, Shinfield got two consecutive wickets at the cost of just one run to disrupt their innings, with Bilal Hussain (15) and Akeesh Khokar (1) both sent back to the pavilion.
Farley’s captain Ali Jalil enjoyed a decent innings as he hit five boundaries and totalled 32 runs before he lost his wicket to the bowling of Hassan Safdar. Duncan Greeff went for six and Farley then lost Manish Kurle for a duck with the visitors on 89-6.
Simon Longfield continued to bat consistently and sensibly to keep his wicket as he built some runs on to the total, but once Shinfield removed him on 35, they rapidly dismissed the final two batsman. Dylan Wood showed his quality with the ball to pick up two more wickets to take his match tally to four as Farley were all out for a score of 129 from 40.1 overs.
Shinfield made light work of reaching the total set by Farley as the opening pair of Saketh Chodimella and Arjit Ghosh put 60 runs on as a partnership before the first wicket fell to set the team on their way to victory.
Lawrence Heaton-Wright claimed his second wicket of the afternoon as Oli Sankey took his second catch of the day to remove Ghosh on 33 with Shinfield in a commanding position at 75-2.
Sankey then took his third catch of the innings as Greeff picked up his first and his sides third wicket, but Shinfield were in control of the match on 127-3 with an abundance of wickets and overs left if needed.
Shinfield completed the run chase in just 26.3 overs with Anil Rebello (28*) and Dylan Wood (4*) at the middle as they beat Farley by a seven wicket margin.
Despite the result, Farley Hill remain above Shinfield in the table in fourth position having picked up one more win than their opponents this season, while Shinfield are in sixth position in the division.
Farley host third placed Twyford and Ruscombe in their next fixture with a chance to leap frog them in the table with victory, while Shinfield travel away to Warfield.
Farley Hill batting: Ditchburn 4, Hussain 15, Jalil 32, Khokar 1, Longfield 35, Greeff 6, Kurle 0, Kapoor 4, Sankey 12, Marr 0, Heaton-Wright 0.
Shinfield bowling: Wood 4-30, Prakash 0-12, Kumar 2-22, Pataan 1-15, Safdar 2-14, Alluri 1-28.
Shinfield batting: Chodimella 14, Ghosh 33, Rebello 28no, Prowse 25, Wood 4no, Kumar dnb, Prakash dnb, Alluri dnb, Pataan dnb, Safdar dnb, Pandey dnb.
Farley Hill bowling: Greeff 1-30, Marr 0-6, Kapoor 0-20, Heaton-Wright 2-33, Kurle 0-24, Jalil 0-5.