A FINE bowling display by Greg Ricketts ensured that Coventry & North Warwickshire claimed victory away to Attock in Warwickshire County League Premier Division.
Ricketts took four wickets during the low-scoring encounter, with Coventry successfully defending their 123 total by skittling out Attock for just 106 following a concerted effort by the visiting bowlers.
After the hosts elected to field first, Coventry slipped to 24-3 after Safraz Ali (3-26) took the early dismissals of Manbir Johal (5), Matthew Naylor (1) and Marco Higgins (11), before Taran Toor (15) and Vaibhav Panwar (26) put together a stand of 33.
While wickets still continued to fall at regular intervals, Coventry began to pick up steam and eventually passed the 100-run mark, thanks to useful totals from Jack Horsley (19) and Ricketts (21no).
George Neal (1) was the last to go after being bowled by Junaid Khan, to leave the visitors with a battle on their hands to defend their total.
Attock, in similar fashion to the visitors, were losing wickets at fairly regular periods, although scores from Mohammed Qamar Khan (33) and Mohin Khan (20) appeared to put them in good stead to win the game when reaching a score of 95-5.
However, two wickets in succession by Ricketts (4-18) to dismiss skipper Asim Khan (10) and Safraz Ali (0) prompted a collapse to the second half of Attock’s batting order.
Top scorer Qamar Khan was the seventh wicket to go after being bowled by Toor (2-11), who then trapped Junaid Khan (0) lbw from the very next ball.
Ricketts then stepped up in the 20th over to take the quickfire dismissals of Usama Khan (3) and Samyr Nawaz (0) to dismiss the hosts and hand Coventry victory.
The win means the gap to fourth-placed Attock is closed to 31 points, with Coventry hoping for further success at home to second-bottom Handsworth on Saturday (noon).
