IT was a great weekend for Stretford CC this Saturday as the first team won their first game and the Seconds had a fantastic away victory over Flowery field CC.

Ibrar Latif who had promised so much, getting 30’s and 40’s, scoring a magnificent 97 to boost Stretford’s total.

Stretford batted first and lost Stephen Green in the first over, but Chris Sharp 36 and Munir Khan 43 consolidated with an 83-run partnership.

Skipper Wasim Zafar joined Latif and they put together a superb partnership of 80, before Zafar chased a wide ball and was caught at a deep gully for 33.

The tail supported Latif who was bowled in the last over for 97 and Stretford finished on an excellent score of 266 for 9.

The Flowery Field reply started with 14-year-old Ahmad Muhammad picking up a wicket in the first over. Muhammad picked up the first 4-60.

Munir Khan bowled some tight early overs and then was replaced by Danie Van Schoor, who then bowled unchanged. The Stretford spinners kept the Flowery Field batters well behind the rate, but a fifth wicket partnership between Jamie Garde 54 and Kieran Lawton 26 held up Stretford.

Muhammad was replaced by Thomas Wright in his first game of the season. Wright bowled with good pace removing both batsmen with quality catching by Green and Latif. After a penultimate over drop with Flowery 9 wickets down it looked as though the bonus point wouldn’t be coming, but a short pitched delivery by Wright was gloved into the hands of 14 year old wicket keeper Matthew Armstrong in the last over for a Stretford win. Flowery finished on 191 all out with Wright 7.2 overs 1 maiden 5 wickets for 32 runs.

The second team posted 250 at Flowery Field with evergreen John Foulkes scoring 62, successive fifties, for John and 16 year old Ocean O’Malley coming in surprisingly low in the order and scoring 68 not out in 55 balls with 7 fours and 3 sixes. Daud Muhammad and Zidane Zafar were the pick of the bowlers with 4 and 3 wickets respectively as Flowery were bowled out for 160