Streetly end Stratford's unbeaten Warwickshire Premier Division start

Warwickshire Premier Division

Streetly 242-7

Stratford 189 all out

Streetly won by 53 runs

STRATFORD tasted their first defeat of the campaign on Saturday, as they slipped to a 53-run defeat away at Streetly.

The in-form Panthers were looking to stretch their unbeaten run to ten games, but they were given a difficult task of maintaining their unblemished record after Streetly scored an impressive 242-7 from their 50 overs.

Despite recovering from 5-4 and a top score of 70 from Luke Nardone, Stratford's innings came to a close in the 39th over, with the visitors bowled out for 189.

With Walmley beating Solihull Municipal by four wickets on Saturday, the Panthers' lead at the top of the table has been cut to nine points.

Batting first Streetly lost their first wicket with just 15 runs on the board when Muhammad Daniyaal was trapped lbw by Mike Brown (3-60).

Neil Curtis was next to go 17 runs later, caught out by Nick Pepper off the bowling of Archie Walker (1-31).

Pepper then claimed his second catch of the day, this time from the bowling of Josh Colwell (1-43) to remove Craig Moore (30), leaving Streetly at 68-3.

Akbar Ahmed joined Imran Qadir and together they put on a 65-run partnership for the fourth wicket before the former was trapped lbw by James Urquhart (2-47).

Ahmed eventually departed for 37, with Colwell catching him out off Brown’s delivery with Streetly now at 146-5.

Streetly’s middle order proved to be a thorn in the side of the Panthers, with Mateen Khan’s unbeaten 62 off 57 balls pushing the score along.

While Anaesh Patel and Matt Hinton departed cheaply, Khan and Junaid Khan (18 not out) played a vital role in guiding Streetly to 242-7 from their 50 overs.

Stratford’s chance of victory looked to be over from the beginning of their reply, as the visitors crashed to 5-4.

Dexter Purser, Gareth Langman, George Burford and Josh Hickman perished early doors, with Waqar Dad (3-25) and Junaid Khan (2-42) doing the early damage.

Nardone and Nick Pepper set about trying to salvage the innings, with the pair scoring 60 runs between them before the latter was run out by Ahmed for 24.

Colwell joined Nardone at the crease and together they forged a solid partnership.

However, when Nardone was trapped lbw by Ahmed for 70, another mini collapse ensued as Stratford slipped from 132-6 to 144-8.

Despite a valiant 35 from Tom Grundy, the Panthers were eventually bowled out for 189 in the 39th over.

Stratford will be hoping to bounce back to winning ways on Saturday when they entertain Solihull Municipal (noon start).