Fahim Quereshi

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Burnham hoisted themselves to the top of Thames Valley League Division 1 on Saturday after chasing down bottom club Maidenhead & Bray’s total of 199 for a six-wicket win.

After a slightly underwhelming start to their campaign, last season’s title challengers are gearing up for another title bid after securing their fifth straight league victory at home to Bray.

Their campaign has been galvanised by the presence of overseas batsman Sabbir Rahman, and the Bangladeshi first-class player was once again at the forefront of Saturday’s win, scoring an unbeaten 77 as the home side chased down Bray’s total of 199-6 from 52 overs.

Rahman arrival in the UK this summer was delayed by his participation in first class matches in Bangladesh and complications over attaining a visa, However, Ali Akbar Raja’s side are unbeaten since his arrival, reeling off five straight league victories to move above Tring Park by three points.

Park had been in pole position, but they slipped up at the weekend, losing by 133 runs against seventh placed Eversley.

Burnham host Eversley on Saturday with a slim three-point advantage over Tring Park at the top.

Saturday’s victory over Bray was relatively routine as while the visiting batsmen all made starts and went on to reach double figures, none was able to score quickly enough to give the hosts a real headache ahead of their chase.

Robert Viney top scored with an unbeaten 53 from 88 deliveries and Benjamin Donnellan’s 29 and Rayan Waheed’s 31 came from 64 and 60 balls respectively.

The hosts chipped away with wickets, Sulaiman Javed taking 2-32. Their bowling was tight and their fielding sharp.

In reply, openers Fahim Quereshi (32) and Yaqoot Rafiq (34) got Burnham’s chase off to a solid start, putting on 67 for the first wicket. But it was the clinical play of Rahman (77no) and the support of Hamzah Afzaal (41no) which eased Burnham to victory on 200-4 from 30.5 overs.

Elsewhere in Division 1, Cookham Dean have now lost three of their last four matches after Saturday’s disappointing 64 run loss at home to Falkland.

Falkland appeared to have the edge over their hosts in most aspects of play at Rickett’s Field and have moved above Cookham up to third in the table off the back of this result. The top four all remain in title contention, with Dean only 23 points behind leaders Burnham with seven matches to play/

The visitors elected to bat on winning the toss and put on 226 before being bowled out in 48.5 overs.

Brandon Gilmour swatted away a good chunk of those runs, reaching 80 not out while Herny Reeves added 41 down the order to help push Falkland beyond the 200 run mark.

Zain Khan came out of the game with great credit, taking 6-53, while Simon Foster took 3-26. Yet both would finish on the losing side.

Given the conditions, the score was no more than par, but Dean had difficulties chasing on their own patch.

Captain Sohil Mangat fell for 21 and Osman Ilyas managed 30, but most of their batsmen had to really dig in to make runs. Greg Davis made a relatively swift 29 from 29 deliveries and Lashvein Srisankar (35no) anchored an innings that slowly ran out of steam. None was able to match the contribution of Falkland’s Gilmour and Reeves and Dean were eventually bowled out for 162 in the 45th over. Replicating Zain Khan’s good form with the ball, James Bird finished with figures of 5-43.

Boyne Hill eked out further points in their battle to avoid the drop, drawing at home to Uxbridge, but captain Ziya Mohamed might have hoped for better after the hosts declared on 280-8 after 51 overs.

Having been put into bat, the home side were indebted to a brilliant innings from Roscoe Thattil (112) as they accelerated to 280, with Mohmed making 37 and Tom Mellor finishing unbeaten on 15 at the close.

In reply, Uxbridge were reduced to 231-9 with just a few overs remaining but Hill couldn’t remove the stubborn Asher Hussain, who made 23 from 47 balls, and lasted 129 minutes at the crease. Tailender Chris Weinel also survived 10 deliveries at the end to finish on 2 not out as Uxbridge saw out their 49 overs for 237-9.