Hussain & Saeed Shine As HBCC 1st XI Beat Mobberley - Hale Barns Cricket Club

Khurram Hussain’s unbeaten half century guided Hale Barns First XI to an impressive victory over Mobberley CC by four wickets after Younas Saeed had earlier claimed a five-wicket haul.

Barns enjoyed a stunning start to the game having won the toss and electing to field as Saeed produced three early dismissals to restrict the hosts to 14-3.

However, the bowlers were unable to maintain the momentum as Matt Mountney and Matt Rose built a solid partnership, with Mountney being the aggressor as he raced to his third fifty of the season.

In a major recovery effort, the pair added 121 together before both suddenly fell in quick succession to Sam Smith (2-25), with Mountney departing for 85, while Rose’s resistance ended on 33 to leave the score on 139-5.

Abdul Aqeel played an exciting cameo to accelerate the run rate and was briefly joined by Sikander Ali, who made a quickfire 20. Rizwan Khuwuhid then came and went for 15 as Saeed (5-51) returned to the attack to add two more victims. Mobberley eventually dropped from 228-6 to finish on 233-9, with James Guest (1-15) finally sending Aqeel back to the pavilion for 49 off 48 balls.

Barns’ reply got off to a positive start as Campbell Vadlja and Joe Cooper remained unscathed until the score reached 44, when the latter fell for 14.

Vadlja (37) continued to accumulate runs and was edging towards a half century when Mountney produced the breakthrough to remove the Aussie 13 runs short of the milestone.

Mountney added another to his tally shortly after to reduce Barns to 97-3, but Hussain and Christian Dodson ensured there would not be a collapse as Dodson went on a rampant streak of hitting, smashing 46 from just 25 deliveries to push the score onto 151 until he eventually holed out off the bowling of Hank Schlaghecke (2-54).

A couple of quick wickets left the game in the balance at 179-6, but Hussain and Ben Hicks kept their composure by putting on an unbroken partnership of 57, with Hussain ending on a terrific 69 not out, while Hicks contributed 22 to steer Barns to a four-wicket win with two overs to spare.