Sunday 1s v Hurley Sunday 1st XI

Jasti's fifty and a Fitton blitz carry Sonning to within seven of Hurley

Neil Jasti and Jacob Fitton put on 117 in a stand that threatened to steal the game at Hurley CC, but Sonning's Sunday 1s finished seven runs short of a testing target in a Sunday friendly that ran to the final over.

Hurley won the toss and batted on a ground where the ball kept finding the boundary, and Ajmal Ali gave their innings its spine with 66 from 77 balls, the great majority of it collected in twelve crisp fours. He was well supported by Mubashir Nabi, whose 32 helped a second-wicket stand of 99 that lifted the home side to 109 for one and put Sonning under real pressure.

The fightback, when it came, was thorough. Sonning took four wickets for 25 runs to reduce Hurley to 134 for five, with Aahaan Sharma and Fitton doing the damage in the middle overs. Sharma's four overs cost only 13, Fitton returned two for 17, and behind them Aashmit Ghosh had already set the tone at the top with a spell of 4-2-7-0 that was as tight as anything seen all afternoon. Edward Duvall claimed two wickets in a busy six-over stint at the sharp end of the innings.

Hurley still had a finisher in reserve. Shahbaz Ali came in and took the attack on immediately, his unbeaten 37 from 20 balls, alongside a brisk 16 not out from Elliot Gray, pushing the home side up to 207 for six from their 28 overs. With 51 extras in the total, Sonning knew the target was gettable if someone stayed in.

Richard Skeil answered that with 22 from the top of the order before falling with the score at 36, and from there Jasti and Fitton took over. Jasti's 56 came from 53 balls with nine fours, a controlled, clean-hitting innings and his fifth half-century for the club, the fourth of a productive season. Fitton, meanwhile, matched him stroke for stroke, his 49 from 38 balls containing nine boundaries of its own and leaving him a single run shy of a fifty he had done more than enough to deserve.

Their partnership carried Sonning from 36 to 153 and brought the target within touching distance. James Carlton Perez, who finished with two for 28, was the pick of the Hurley bowlers, while captain Mo Basharat and Jitender Bhular both kept things tight through the middle overs in a disciplined home effort.

Aahaan Sharma's 18 from 13 balls kept the required rate in check late on, and a stand of 24 with William Travers took the visitors to 196 before Sharma was run out. Travers finished unbeaten on 10 alongside Kishan Akula, but Sonning closed on 200 for six, seven runs adrift with the innings complete.

Two sides scoring at better than seven an over apiece made for an afternoon of genuine entertainment, and Sonning will take plenty from it: Ghosh's miserly new-ball work, the wickets shared by Sharma and Fitton in the middle overs, and above all a third-wicket partnership that turned a stiff target into a near thing.