Depleted Slinfold lose at Crawley Eagles

Visiting Slinfold were inserted into bat and bowled out for 128.

But despite the below par score they had their hosts in some real bother at 12-3, before Eagles regrouped to reach their target in 40 overs.

“We felt we were in with a real chance of finishing them off when we took three early wickets,” Slinfold skipper Steve Haines said. “But then tea was taken and it meant we lost our momentum while they had the chance to regroup.

“We were a little bit depleted on Saturday so it was always going to be a struggle. But I felt 130 wasn’t far off a competitive score, if we’d got 160 we’d probably have given them a game.”

Waseem Ul Haq top scored for Slinfold with 30 and Sikhokele Camagu was next best with 23 as recovered from 51-5.

But having taken three early wickets the break allowed the hosts to take stock, and Aamer Riaz, with 44 not out and Amaar Khan with 50 teamed up to hand them victory.

Haines added: “Our bowling does need to improve as we’ve only taken ten wickets from the last three games but we should have players back now.”