Grantham Cricket Club celebrates perfect weekend
Grantham CC celebrated its first perfect weekend of 2022 with four convincing wins recorded across the club.
First to take the spoils on Saturday were the third XI who were bowled out for just 82 against Spalding in Division One of the South Lincs and Border League .
Rex Whitehurst was one of only two batsman to reach double figures with a knock of 42 in his first innings of the season.
Spalding then folded to 50 all out as 13-year-old Nilesh Prabhakaran took 5-19 with some devastating leg spin.
In the Lincs ECB Premier League, Woodhall Spa arrived at Gorse Lane with the hope of bringing Grantham first XI's 100 per cent league record to an end.
The visitors were set a victory target of 235 by Grantham, with Aqib Afsaal anchoring the innings with 63 not out and Zane Abbas also hitting 63, with seven boundaries.
Wickets were nicely spread out amongst the Grantham attack with Bilal Hussain edging the bowling stats with 3-21 off his 10 overs as Spalding were bowled out for 122 in 39.1 overs.
Grantham second XI travelled to Woodhall Spa and bowled their hosts out for just 129 in the SLBL Premier Division match.
Opening bowlers Matthew Barry and Rahul Kumar bagged three wickets apiece, whilst Isuru Vidanagamage destroyed the lower order with 4-18.
D'ahri Hughes-Francis top scored in Grantham's reply with an unbeaten 46 as the visitors closed on 131-2 for an eight wicket victory.
Hughes-Francis carried on his exceptional form with the bat and achieved the rare feat of scoring back-to-back home centuries in Division One of the Grantham and Melton Association.
The Antiguan hit nine sixes in a score of 125 as Grantham Sunday XI posted a straight 200-9.
Evington Lions cruised to 112-2 but once Glenton Williams and Mike Evans settled into their work, the Leicester outfit’s pursuit caved in on itself and they were dismissed for 169.
Williams finished with 4-46 after overcoming a difficult first few overs.
Fixtures: Saturday – GCC 1st XI v Louth CC, Long Sutton CC v GCC 2nd XI, GCC 3rd XI v Billingsborough CC 2nd XI.
