DORRIDGE suffered an embarrassing defeats at the hands of Attock on Saturday to end their good start to the season.
After winning the toss and asked their opponents to bat, captain Dave Ball and James Ayres bowled tightly to keep Mahmood and Masood looking for any chance of runs but the introduction of Ali Ebad quickly paid off as he dismissed Mahmood (9) and captain Rawait Khan lbw in consecutive balls to make Attock 27-2. However this brought Mohammed Khan to the crease and he and Masood added 130 runs in a stand that was aided by some poor bowling, fielding and catching. Ayres struck at 157 when he had Masood (55) caught by Shahzad Ali after he had batted for 111 deliveries, and Mohammed Khan followed 27 runs later when Ebad Ali had him caught behind by Joe Dodd for 91 off only 89 balls making Attock 180-4. The rest of the batting played diligently in adding 57 runs for the loss of 4 wickets and Attock closed on 237-8 which was seen by Dorridge as a par score. Ali returned the excellent figures of 10-0-43-5 and Dave Ball was his usual parsimonious self in conceding only 23 runs off 10 overs in taking two wickets.
Dorridge’s Aqeel Ahmad and Dodd started well against Junaid and Haaris Khan and had put on 50 in 13 overs when Ahmad was caught for 35 off only 41 balls. Ball came in, and in adding 67 runs with Dodd, had put Dorridge in an excellent position. Unfortunately for the home team, things fell apart as Dodd (36) and Ball (48) were dismissed within 6 runs making Dorridge 123-3. The situation rapidly became much worse as 5 more wickets tumbled for only 20 rund and Dorridge were staring defeat in the face. Amar Rajgor (17*) was the only batsman after the first three to reach double figures as Dorridge subsided to 167 all out to lose by 70 runs. Shafiq Khan (4-22) and Haaris Khan (3-23) were the pick of the bowlers.
