Thames Valley: Mughal's incredible 9-38 helps leaders Burnham to victory over Reading

Burnham continue to fend off rivals at the top of Thames Valley League Division 1 after an incredible spell of bowling from Usman Mughal helped them to a 49-run victory over Reading on Saturday.

Having laid down a slightly underwhelming 191 all out in 50.4 overs, Burnham bowled out their visitors for just 142 in 38 overs with Mughal taking nine of the 10 wickets.

Adnan Shabbir’s newly promoted side weren’t necessarily expected to compete for promotion back to Home Counties cricket this summer, however, they’ve made an excellent start in Division 1, winning several tight matches and now have a slender advantage over closest challengers Tring Park.

They also appear to have one or two batting and bowling assets that could supercharge their promotion hopes.

Saturday was one of their more comfortable victories and it was claimed thanks to an excellent bowling display.

Having elected to bat on winning the toss, the home side were bowled out for 191 in 50.4 overs. Again, the top order scored more fluently than the lower order, however, no one produced the kind of big score which might have taken a game like this away from Reading.

Shabbir top scored with 36 and Affiq Lathieff managed 30 further up the order, however, Reading should have fancied their chances of chasing at the changeover. Moin Khowaja and Praful Waghela both took three wickets for them as Burnham finished on a slightly underpar total.

However, after a decent enough start with the bat, Reading fell almost 50 runs short of their target.

This was thanks to a simply astonishing spell of bowling from Usman Mughal who took 9-38.

A new signing, Mughal has now taken 15 wickets in his first two matches, and he looks like the kind of player who could really put Burnham on course for the title and promotion.

Shayaan Ahmed made 32 before becoming one of Mughal’s first victims of the afternoon, and the bowler didn’t let up from there, taking eight more wickets and sweeping up the tail for precious few runs.

Burnham are back in action at Boyne Hill on Saturday, and, while they’ve been the form side so far this summer, the league remains congested.

Only 25 points separate Burnham in first from Boyne Hill in fifth, with Ziya Mohammed’s side held to another draw by Amersham on Saturday.

One of the fancied sides before the season, Hill began the campaign well, but they’ve now gone four matches without a win after losing to Eversley and Tring Park and seeing their match at home to Reading abandoned.

On Saturday, they failed to get the better of Amersham, despite restricting them to 204-9 off 52 overs.

Tharushan Iddamalgoda shone for them with the ball, taking 7-55, including the wicket of Amersham’s top scorer Harry Fanning (70). However, Hill couldn’t capitalise on their efforts in the field as they were held up for 183-7 in 48 overs.

In an impressive all-round display, Tharushan Iddamalgoda laid the groundwork for victory with an unbeaten 84, but support from teammates was thin on the ground with only Jamie Odell (28) and Mohamed (23) managing to make it past 20.

A win over Burnham on Saturday, however, could re-ignite their season.

At the other end of the table, it looks like it’s shaping up to be a season of struggle for Marlow after the bottom club were beaten by seven wickets at Uxbridge.

Having been put into bat, Phil Lines’ side managed 203-7 from their 52 overs, with Huraira Arif top scoring with 62 in a decent middle order spell. Aidan Hawkesworth (37) and Jake Jackson (34) also helped push the target beyond 200 runs.

However, Uxbridge needed little invitation to go after the Marlow bowling attack with Amaan Quadri (69) and Hemal Pragji (63) cutting and driving their team to a comfortable victory.

The result leaves Lines’ side 25 points from safety ahead of a crucial looking home game at home to seventh placed Ickenham on Saturday.