OA make it two out of two

SHL Division Three

Old Albanian 254-7d beat Flitwick 215 by 39 runs

OLD ALBANIAN made it two wins out of two with a 39-run victory over Flitwick.

Having been inserted, OA got off to their best start for some time when Jones (35) and Corran put on 69 for the first wicket.

Matthew Corran and Simon Gray then batted serenely for 28 overs, adding 139 and rarely looking in difficulty, although Corran had a lucky escape on 43 when the Flitwick 'keeper Gurney failed to take the ball off Harvey with an easy stumping available.

When Corran was eventually out for 95, just short of what would have been a well-deserved hundred, OA had 208 on the board with a maximum of nine overs remaining.

Gray was soon out for 73 and other batsmen perished seeking quick runs, but some handsome blows lower down the order helped the score along to 254, and captain Graham Dill felt able to declare when the seventh wicket fell.

In reply, Flitwick got off to a flier on what remained a good batting track, with an opening partnership of 65 off 12 overs before Gurney fell for 33 to an excellent catch at square leg by Steve Jeffery off the ever-reliable Perry Hall.

Although Davies fell for 13, also to Hall, Flitwick's skipper Ferguson was leading from the front, and with Govender (83) took the score to 149, at which point he drilled Dill's first ball, a full toss, to mid-on, where Dan Foster held the catch.

With 17 overs left, Govender and Read then added 50 to take the score to 199 after 39 overs, but the partnership was ended by Gray in a second spell which was to give him four wickets for just nine runs in 23 balls.

With Kwesi Roy returning for an equally devastating second spell in which he claimed three wickets in two overs, to end Flitwick's challenge.