Foto: Khalid Ahmadi (Sparta) bowled Samir Butt uit. ©ArjenSmelt.
Tkcricket.com: ..at the Bermweg, where Punjab-Ghausia had won the toss and elected to put hosts Sparta 1888 in.
Sparta soon found themselves in difficulties at 24 for three, with Shaquille Martina, Riley Mudford and Sam Ferguson all gone, but although Faizan Bashir’s 25 was the top score some dogged resistance from Manminder Singh, Umar Baker and Martijn Snoep in the lower order enabled them to reach 161 for nine; Burhan Niaz was the most successful of Punjab’s bowlers with three for 18 from seven overs.
The visitors quickly discovered that that was a better total than it may have seemed at the innings break, and Snoep and Khalid Ahmadi maintained the pressure effectively as Punjab, losing wickets at intervals, increasingly fell behind the DLS par score.
An interruption for rain after 17 overs, with Punjab on 58 for four, led to the match being cut to 45 overs with a revised target of 157, but when the players were driven from the field for what proved to be the last time Punjab were on 88 for five, 11 runs behind the par score, and Sparta had earned their first points of this season’s 50-over competition.