Super Saeed takes fight to Preston

Visiting skipper Sajid Patel won the toss and elected to bat first as Preston were bowled out for 175.

Geeth Malinda (21) and Patel (35) opened and they started well, until the former was bowled by Jamie Cassidy (1-38).

Patel also departed, sub professional Saeed Anwar Jnr (3-51) claiming his first wicket of the day, Ryan Pearson with the catch, and Yasin Patel (34) then became another Anwar victim, Viraj Bhatia collecting the catch.

Lukman Vahaluwala (34) did his bit with the bat for Preston but Adam Derham (4-26) struck thanks to a Damian Gudgeon catch, while Eddy Read (1-23) claimed his sole wicket of the day when Cassidy caught Irshad Desai for a duck.

Jitendra Kumar (2) was then run out, Derham and Gudgeon combined to remove Yasin Boda (13) and Anwar took the wicket of Balaaj Khan (11) to give the hosts a fighting chance of victory.

Rizwan Ali (1) and Andrew Starkie (0) also fell as Preston were all out for 175, Sabbir Patel finishing on 10 not out.

Tommy Clough played his part with the ball, despite not taking any wickets he finished with figures of 0-28 in his nine over spell.

In reply, Bhatia fell for just eight when he became Vahaluwala’s first victim, caught by Malinda, and Mark Woodhead managed 18 before being run out byKumar.

Standing in for Ashan Priyanjan, who has been recalled by Sri Lanka, Anwar Jnr was the mainstay of the Morecambe reply.

He scored an impressive 80 not out as he tried to take the game to Preston, while captain Pearson managed 18 before being caught by Boda off the bowling of Rizwan Ali (1-41).

Adam Derham put in a decent performance, hitting 26 runs in his innings, but Sabbir Patel (2-55) removed him with the help of Boda with another catch. Eddy Read was run out for just two while brother Laurence fell for a duck to Patel as Morecambe’s run chase started to grind to a halt.

Tommy Clough (10) reached the double figure mark but he too fell, Malinda running him out, leaving Anwar Jr and Luke Pearson (0 no) unbeaten at the crease with time running out.

It was a close-run thing but Morecambe were ultimately eight short, finishing on 167-5.

The Woodhill Lane team picked up seven points from the game but they remain bottom of the Northern Premier League.