Colne v Accrington
Sunday September 8th 2013
Fosters Lancashire League |
Sunday September 8th |
Score |
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Score |
Colne |
142 |
Accrington |
144-2 |
Scorecard |
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Table |
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Accrington (12pts) beat Colne (0pts) by 8 wickets |
Ash celebrates breaking the record
©Nigel Stockley
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Accrington professional Ashar Zaidi rounded off a magnificent all round season by breaking Bobby Simpson's 54 year-old club batting record of 1444 runs. Going into the final match at Colne, Zaidi needed to score 90 runs to break one of the oldest batting records still standing and when he was 40 short with just 48 needed for victory Simpson's record looked safe. It was then that Zaidi launched himself at the inexperienced duo of Kenton Rhodes and Joel Duerden to power past the record in fairytale fashion. It was the last ball of Rhodes over at 5.13pm that Simpson's record finally fell with Zaidi running a single that ended with a joyous leap of celebration. Zaidi hit thirteen fours and four sixes from just 66 balls. He earned his share of luck when wicketkeeper Sam Tillotson dropped a simple catch off Daneyal Qasim on 11.
After losing Graeme Sneddon without scoring it looked as though Aijaz Shah hadn't read the script by racing to 29 in 2nd wicket stand of 93 with his partner. Shah passed 500 runs for the season during his innings. When Shah fell to Duerden, Simon Hanson came in and didn't get a look in as Zaidi took complete control, hammering four after four. Zaidi also took 4-28 to finish as both the top wicket-taker and leading run scorer in the Lancashire League this season. His run tally finished up a club record 1446 at 68.5 and he also took 79 wickets at just 13.5. Jimmy Hayhurst also took 4-38 and David Ormerod 2-27 to finish on 49 wickets for the season. Colne sub professional Mohammad Jamal top scored with 44 from 48 balls with three fours and two sixes. Billy Jamil (25) and Khurram Nazir (25) put on 53 after the early loss of Duerden and then Jamal and skipper Matt Walker (26) put on 68 for the 5th wicket. The return of Hayhurst for a rare spell at the lower order saw Colne's last 6 wickets fall for the addition of 12 runs, the final 4 wickets adding just 1 run. Accrington's win was their 22nd of the season and a new club record.