Hoylandswaine maintained their record of a trophy every year they’ve been in the Drakes League by landing the allroundercricket.com T20 Trophy for the fourth time.
The Haigh Lane side scored a 41-run victory over Shelley in an excellently-run finals day at Thongsbridge to complete a hat trick of wins in the shortest format.
Opener Gharib Nawaz was at the heart of Swaine’s 160-4 total at Miry Lane, hitting 65 in 63 minutes with five fours and four sixes and getting his runs off just 51 balls, at a strike rate of 127.
Ben Potter hit 21 off 17 deliveries and Ryan Robinson 23 off the same number (with two fours and a six each), and it was enough to set a challenging total despite some reasonably economical bowling from the Shelley attack.
Tom Haytack took one for 29 from his four while Ibrar Younas had the best economy rate, 6.25, while taking one for 25 in his allocation.
Unfortunately for Shelley, they soon fell behind the rate in reply as wickets fell, and Javed Iqbal led the Swaine attack excellently top claim four for 12 in his four overs to rip the heart out of the reply.
He claimed the key wicket of Shelley’s T20 captain Sash Naidoo for seven and the top scores for Shelley came down the order when the trophy was already in the bag – Shahban Raheem hitting three boundaries in his 22 and Younas two fours and two sixes in a valiant 29.
With Kesrick Williams taking two for 22 and Yasir Abbas two for 14, Shelley were sent back for 119 in 19.3 overs and Swaine maintained their firm grip on the silverware.
