Ifield lose to top of the table Middleton
Middleton won the toss and asked the visitors to bat first and Paul Clifford and Sam Dorrington set off aggressively with Clifford taking 11 off the first over and they continued to accumulate runs until the score had reached 31 at which point Clifford was bowled by Hanley for 14.
Jack Groves joined Dorrington and together they batted sensibly rotating the strike and keeping the scoreboard ticking over but the Middleton bowling attack was accurate and chances for free scoring limited and patience was the order of the day.
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Hide AdDorrington completed his first fifty of the season with a 6 but was out soon afterwards but together with Groves had put on an excellent 94 run partnership that had taken Ifield to 125 for 2. Groves fell one short of his fifty just 6 runs later when he was caught behind by Burrows off Ender but as with Dorrington this was a welcome return to form.
At 131 for 3 Ifield still looked set for a decent total but when Rawlins was out for just 2 followed by skipper Caltsounis for 9 the visitors suddenly looked shaky. Raza Ali batting down the order at number 5 scored 28 but none of the lower order managed to make double figures and the innings closed at a very disappointing 191 all out with the wickets being shared between 5 different Middleton bowlers.
Ifield opened the bowling with the seam of Caltsounis and the spin of Jacob and it paid off when the dangerous Sean Heather was trapped LBW by Jacob for just 2 but new batsman Jack Lerwell and opener Will Burrows put on a half century partnership to take the home side to 70 before the next wicket fell when Burrows was bowled by Jacob for 40.
Aamer Riaz picked up the wickets of Lerwell for 43 and Hansford for 13 and at 103 for 4 Ifield felt they had a sniff but Jofra Archer and Middleton Captain Brandon Hanley had other ideas and Hanley in particular was ruthless and smashed 57 off just 28 balls to take the home side to the brink of victory.
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Hide AdIfield picked up a couple of late wickets but Middleton reached their target with 8 overs to spare and three wickets in hand.
This was a better Ifield performance than the one the week before against Chichester but they know that they failed to capitalise on a solid start and ultimately this proved costly.
Next week Ifield host Worthing.
See local cricket reports in this week’s Crawley Observer
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