Whitchurch 204-4 Ludlow 151

LUDLOW were undone by Mas Husnain who starred with both bat and ball to lead Whitchurch to a comfortable 53-run win at Burway in the Proactive Shropshire Premier Cricket League.

After opening the batting and scoring a century in the first innings of a match reduced to 40-overs per innings, he followed up by opening the bowling to destroy the Ludlow reply with five wickets.

After winning the toss and inserting Whitchurch the home team made a confident start with Steve Hood taking two wickets in the opening overs to leave Whitchurch on 30-2 after 15 overs. At this stage Husnain, who started the game with a poor track record against Ludlow, began to cut loose and with the steady assistance of Ben Platt the innings blossomed.

He reached his century but then became one of Shannon Tubb's two victims. Going in to the final over at 181 the home team were reasonably happy with their effort but then Mark Tooze (21 not out) and Platt (54 not out) cut loose to take 23 from Tubb's over to finish on 204-4. Hood bowled unchanged to finish with figures of 2-76.

With Tubb in sparkling form the Ludlow reply was on target at 40-1 when disaster struck. Tubb (34) called for a run when his stroke was fumbled at mid-wicket but Matt Speck made a quick recovery to beat the Australian with a direct hit. With the aid of some dodgy decisions the visitors took control.

Only Pete Milner (54 not out) and Ben Andrews (20) offered any serious resistance and with the weather closing in Hasnain (5-55) came back into the attack to fire out the final two wickets just minutes before the rain came down.