FINN Haynes’ explosive 83 provided a high-spot for Bedworth who slipped to a seven wicket Warwickshire Premier League defeat at Sarmad Bhatti-inspired Walmley, writes Paul Smith.
The young right-hander hit five sixes in his typically entertaining innings and with Josh Thomas tagging on a late cameo the visitors posted a useful-looking 240 all out.
Home skipper Jono Newis took five wickets while fellow off-spinner Bhatti snared three victims but it was in his main role as one of the division’s leading batters that the hosts’ Pakistani pro took the contest away from Bedworth.
Having arrived in the middle with Walmley in some difficulty at ten for two, Bhatti stroked 19 boundaries in an unbeaten 120 which saw his team home with four overs remaining.
With four rounds of action remaining and 80 points available Bedworth remain 42 points clear of the drop zone within which Moseley Ashfield and Bablake both also suffered round 18 defeats.
“We only have ourselves to blame – it was very frustrating,” Ryan Parnell said.
“Unlike in recent weeks we laid a good foundation with the bat with Finn playing really well and with ten overs to go we have the chance to set them 270.
“But we lost Finn to a run out and wickets fell when we didn’t want them to and as a result we only reached 240, which was a good score but not what we hoped for.
“We then made things worse by giving Bhatti three or four lives. In particular he was dropped at slip off Waqar early on and if that had stuck we were in a very strong position.
“If you don’t take your chances with the bat and in the field you don’t win, it’s about as simple as that.”
In the absence of illness victim Abdul Hafeez, stand-in Bedworth skipper Parnell opted to take first use but soon found himself back in the pavilion with only five on the board.
Thereafter a useful contribution from Raksy Puppala, whose 36 contained two sixes and five fours, saw the visitors progress to 80 for three against the home side’s spin-dominated attack.
Scott Friswell (23) then helped Haynes add 61 for Bedworth’s fourth wicket before the opener put together a fifth-wicket alliance with Ross Parnell (23) worth 48.
Haynes was eventually seventh out after making an 87-ball 83 during which he found the boundary six times and cleared it on a further five occasions.
Enough time remained for Thomas to up the tempo with a 20-ball 33 containing four fours and a six before the excellent Newis (5-34) worked his way through the visitors’ tail to wrap things up in the final over with the scoreboard showing 240.
Bhatti claimed 3-52 for Walmley, but he had little time to recover before arriving at the crease following Fizz Abdullah and Waqar Dad’s early dismissals of Yousuf Akhbar and the in-form Callum Herron.
However, Bhatti was quickly into his stride, and in the company of experienced opener James Bristow and with the help of three missed chances he proceeded to wrest the initiative away from the visitors.
As they pushed for a breakthrough Bedworth quickly turned to spin, but in the absence of first-choice off-spinner Hafeez they were unable to apply a brake to the scoring rate.
When leg-spinner James Cooper eventually bowled Bristow for a fine 103-ball 66 the home side’s third-wicket pair had added 167.
Bhatti, who was now in the company of Sachin Dubb, was in no mood to let the visitors back into the contest, and he duly completed a fine hundred before seeing his team past the finishing line in the 46th over.
Walmley’s Pakistani star’s unbeaten 120 came from 134 balls with a six and 19 fours while Dubb contributed an even-time unbeaten 34 to their unbroken 66-run stand.
Bedworth visit table-topping Coventry & North Warwickshire next Saturday.
