North Leeds welcomed Otley to the homestead for the opening game of their 3XI campaign. Ziad Khan and Sam Irving made their senior debuts for the home side, now under the leadership of newly appointed captain Hammad Ahmad. He won the toss and without hesitation elected to bat. J.Heath and T.Aldred opened up the batting and got Leeds off to a cracking start with a 50 stand, both applying patience with solid defence, before dispatching the bad balls to the rope. T.Aldred was the first to go for 21 as he tried to replicate his booming drive downtown a few balls earlier, Toby Gray getting the visitors the much required breakthrough, pouched safely at mid-off by H.Steval , the score 54-1.The stalwart A.Aldred came to the wicket and played a nice couple of pull shots, was then soon after adjudged leg before wicket for 10 as Toby bagged his second. T.Kapote joined John at the wicket, the former lofted some maximums over the rope and brought up a well played 50 shortly after.

Tij got off the mark in fine fashion with an elegant cover drive to the fence. Sadly just as he was beginning to look set, he was out lbw for 8 as H.Steval got Otley their third. Some may say slightly unlucky as there were suspicions of an inside edge.109-3 was then 109-4 as the set man J.Heath was trapped bang in front by Toby Gray who now had claimed his third victim for the day. The home side now required a partnership to get things back on track. That is exactly what W.Arshad and A.Chana set about doing. Waqar played the patience game to get himself in, meanwhile Anil on the other hand more or less got himself going right from the get go as he played free flowing cricket. Some wristy flicks and straight drives down the ground are fine examples. Waqar then decided to into overdrive mode as he planted 2 maximums over the fence back to back, the first a pull into the house, the second over mid-off into the net area. The fine partnership ended bizarrely at 77, Waqar out hit wicket by the off-spin bowling of C.Halliday for 37.A short time later as the score went past 200, Anil got to a well deserved 50 at better than a run a ball. Chris then took his second wicket for the day as Hammad looked to hit out, well caught by H.Steval on the cow corner fence for 7.Leeds finished their innings on a competitive 215-5 , Anil 50* and the debutant Sam 2*, a note for Duncan Ralphs as he moved himself down the order to number 9 to give the juniors a chance.

After a fine tea the Otley chase begun. Hammad opened up the bowling and soon left Otley reeling at 12-3.All three of the batsmen he dismissed out for a duck. C.Halliday chopped on off one that kept slightly low, O.Wolfenden was adjudged leg before wicket, maybe a tad unlucky as there were two noises and it could have been bat first. The Otley skipper G.Eley was also bowled as the North Leeds skipper used the slope to his advantage by bringing the ball back in to hit the top of off. L.Smith then showed some grit for Otley as he dug in and struck some nice drives for 4, giving a half chance along the way as Anil dived full stretch with his weaker hand at mid-off, in what would have been a stunner. Along with H.Steval the pair put on 29 for the 4th wicket and moved the score on to 42-3.From there however it very dramatically went to 42-7 in the space of an over ,all thanks to some sublime bowling by T.Kapote. H.Steval was lbw for 8.Both E.Brady and A. Jeffrey were then bowled on 0 by his away swingers to leave him on a hat-trick. Although he didn’t get it he wrapped up his spell by having J.Steval lbw on 0.

L.Smith made a 42 ball 14 before being given lbw off the Leeds skipper in the following over, no shot was offered but maybe a touch unfortunate as the ball may have sneaked down leg side. In search of a five for, his decision was rewarded in his final over as he had T.Gray caught behind by J.Heath; this gave him his first senior 5 wicket haul. Z.Khan wrapped the game up for the home side as he claimed his first senior wicket on debut, G.Hughes bowled in his second over to complete a 168 run win in 15.2overs.

A fine performance from the thirds in their opening game, plenty of positives to be taken forward as we hopefully see more juniors welcomed into this development 3XI side. Away at Rawdon this week and hopes for sunny weather after the rainy weekend that passed.

By Hammad Ahmad North Leeds Third Team Captain