Airmiles Afridi in Triumphant Return

Rastrick 1st XI started their Huddersfield League Championship campaign with an excellent victory over fellow promotion hopefuls Clayton West.

The Club was boosted by the last-minute arrival of our overseas professional Asif Afridi, who had to suffer the interminable pain of a budget flight choice from the Chairman, which saw him catapulted across several continents and airports before his arrival hours before the game. Hardly ideal preparation, but the £3 saving compared to a direct flight can now be invested into the Club's infrastructure.

On a glorious day at Round Hill, captain Jacob Waterson elected to bat first with a new look opening pair of Majid Khan and evergreen Matthew Lambert. However, Lambert soon missed the ball and departed for 2 and was quickly followed by Rastrick debutant Shakeel Mahmood, who played across the line, being bowled for just 4. With the score on 23/2, Majid Khan and recently arrived overseas professional Asif Afridi began to rebuild and after a patient start to their partnership, the runs quickly began to flow. Afridi in particular was scoring fluently, hitting 3 towering sixes on his way to a half-century. Khan was the perfect foil, slowly accumulating in a profitable partnership of 147, which ended when Afridi was bowled by Phil Tunnicliffe for a splendid 81 off 91 balls. With a score approaching 300 a possibility, the innings began to stall when Waterson was out cheaply for just a single but youngster Tom Barrett hit an excellent run-a-ball cameo of 33 as Khan passed 50 before having to retire with back problems on 67. Zafar Khan and Osama Ahmad unleashed a late flurry of runs to take Rastrick to a very competitive total of 252/5 off their 50 overs. The only disappointment for the large Easter crowd was being denied the opportunity of watching the cricketing legend and Humpty Dumpty look-alike, Matt Clark, in action with the bat. The rotund southerner has reduced his pre-season jellied eel intake and has lost several stones off his ample frame.

In reply, Clayton West were looking for a quick start to get ahead of the run rate before the introduction of the miserly Afridi and Phil Tunnicliffe in particular was severe on some wayward bowling. Osama Ahmad made the breakthrough with the dismissal of Ashley Thompson but new batsman David Swann and Tunnicliffe took Clayton West to 76/1 before the pivotal moment when Zafar Khan took an athletic catch at full stretch on the boundary edge to dismiss the dangerous Tunnicliffe for 47. Rastrick were always slight favourites throughout the innings, as Afridi turned the screw with a tight spell of 2/36 off 14 overs which put pressure on the visitors as the required rate increased. David Swann reached 52 before falling to Jack 'The Burglar' Pearson which left the visitors struggling on 130/6 and in spite of a late rally from Sam Tyas and Jamie Ward, who put on 53 runs in good time it was the return of Ahmad which sealed the game for Rastrick as he ripped through the late middle order to finish with 6 wickets for 75 runs. Clayton West’s chase finished on 211 all out, giving Rastrick a victory by 41 runs, but was nowhere near as comfortable as the final scoreline suggests. Clark was outstanding in the field and, in spite of resembling a boiled egg with legs, he managed to field nearly 50 overs without making any embarrassing errors which were the trademark of his 1st XI appearances last season.

Rastrick will take confidence from their opening day victory against a side who are likely to be challenging towards the top of the Championship table. The next game is a trip to Slaithwaite on Saturday, who will be looking to bounce back from an opening day defeat.