Ghulam Moyhuddin was a menace with the ball in hand, sweeping aside Colwall’s batsmen with ease in a five-wicket showing. Picture by Marcus Mingins.
REDDITCH Entaco’s topsy-turvy season continued last weekend, after a fine bowling show helped Dan Protherough’s side save face and secure a 68-run win over Colwall.
The Bromsgrove Road hosts looked to be in trouble after being skittled out for just 132 runs in the space of 43 overs in the Worcestershire League Premier Division fixture, but were bailed out by Ghulam Moyhuddin’s five-for that helped limit the visitors to a score of 64 in their near-22 overs faced.
In a result that will have come as a huge relief, not least due to the spell of inconsistent form that Entaco have experienced season, the reward of an improved standing of seventh will make good reading for the months ahead – as Redditch can finally begin to start looking further up the table.
Winning the toss and opening respectably through Oliver Mason (25) and Haleem Basharatt’s (25) stand of 42, it soon became clear that the afternoon was going to be a difficult one to navigate after the first couple of wickets fell.
Michael Gooch (4-21) was notably on form and, having wiped out four of the hosts’ top order inside the first ten overs, Redditch needed a reprieve of some sort.
That luxury, however, was somewhat difficult to come by, though Ghulam Moyhuddin (19, lbw) and Haris Ali Mohammed (12, lbw) did offer some stubborn resistance if not an abundance of runs to halt Colwall’s momentum.
Appearing to take inspiration from his teammate’s bowling display earlier in the day, James Wagstaff (4-6) went one better to take four wickets in the space of only 15 deliveries to end Redditch’s innings prematurely.
But what the Colwall could do, the hosts could do just as well – if not better – as Salil Mahmood (3-21) set in some early panic amongst the visiting ranks with the opening three wickets.
Recovering somewhat through James Abel (11) after Elliot John Hennessy (11) and Fergus Cameron (24) had laid down some early runs, a complete capitulation was witnessed after the departure of the latter.
With Cameron dismissed at 55-4, the visitors’ batting line-up simply fell apart at the seams to hand Redditch a deserved triumph.
Moyhuddin (5-15) had what could only be described as a field day when taking all five wickets in the space of his final six deliveries – including three wickets on the spin to close the game.
With the chance to secure back-to-back wins for the first time this season, Redditch go to out-of-form Worcester on Saturday hoping to continue their opponents struggles by dealing a fifth successive defeat.
