Superb bowling brings Crawley Eagles fine victory

The home side were soon in trouble at 61/4 (Adil Mustapha 2/31; Imran Mehboob 1/27; Fazlan 1/23) before a partnership between Tiwari Sorab (67) and James Smillie (16) took the score to a 110.

Tiwari was outstanding as he smashed the Eagles seam and spin attack to all parts of the ground.

However, the Eagles bowling unit is possibly one of the best outside the Premier League and with the introduction of Tufail Dar (3/6) and Anjum Zaffar (3/2) the momentum of the innings was quickly shifted as they both claimed three wickets apiece in only six overs to bowl out the home side for a paltry 115.

The chase on an increasingly deteriorating track was never going to be easy but Hisham ul Haq (20) followed Tiwari’s early lead and came out guns blazing.

Eagles then slumped to 24-3 and vice captain Amaar Suddahazai in place with Tufail (9) when on 56 when Amaar was bowled for 14.

Tufail having run himself out soon after left the score at 62/5 and it was left to Rehan Hassan (24) and the mercurial Fazlan (20) to see the side home.

Youngster Usman Bashir (8) finished with a towering six into the clubhouse.

Captain Imran Suddahazai said: “An excellent team performance on a testing pitch as well as missing a key player in Atif Ail. Anjum and Tufail proved our strength in depth.”

Eagles welcome Burgess Hill to Cherry Lane this Saturday.