HASHIR Dafedar struck his third unbeaten ton of the season in his farewell knock before returning to India to help Hale Barns' first XI thrash Lymm Oughtrington Park by 169 runs.

Ben Hicks then added another landmark to his list of milestones in recent weeks by taking a sensational hat-trick as Barns blew their opponents away to climb up to third in the Cheshire Cricket League Division One.

Barns knew they would have to pick up the pace of the innings early in a reduced-overs game due to the wet weather and opener Chris Colley raced out of the blocks with a handful of boundaries.

Travis Scholes produced an early breakthrough with the score on 20-1, but Colley and Dafedar were in destructive form to put the hosts in a commanding position.

The pair added 129 for the second wicket as Colley approached his first century of the year until he was desperately unlucky to be run out by Matthew Bradshaw for a terrific 92 off 79 balls, that included 11 fours and four sixes.

Bradshaw soon had a second run-out to his name, but Dafedar continued to play fluently, while he was joined at the crease by Hicks, who immediately displayed his attacking intent.

Their partnership worth 60 runs was broken by Scholes (2-65) when Hicks’ blistering cameo came to an end for 27 from just 14 deliveries as Barns took the total past 200 inside 30 overs.

And Dafedar capped things off by going to another century in his final innings for the club, eventually ending on a magnificent 106 not out as Hale set an unbelievable score of 244-4 from their 32 allotted overs.

In reply, the visitors were unscathed after two overs on 10-0, but in a dramatic turn of events, five wickets fell in nine deliveries to leave Lymm reeling on 10-5 inside just four overs.

Hicks maintained his stunning run of form over the past couple of months with an outrageous over as he removed three batters in three balls, to the dismay of hat-trick victim Nafees Din who was outraged to be adjudged lbw having been adamant he had inside-edged the ball onto his pad.

After Hicks’ heroics, it was Dave Saddington’s (3-23) turn as he claimed two dismissals in the same over and the pair soon added another wicket each to the tally to send two more batsmen back to the pavilion to restrict the away side to 23-7.

Number nine batter Nick Chadbourne was the only player to offer any sort of meaningful resistance as he reached double figures, putting on 37 runs with Steve Knowles (9) until Joe Fretwell-Walsh got in on the act.

Not many teams have found a way to prevent Hicks (5-37) racking up wickets of late and it was inevitable he would claim another five-wicket haul, while Fretwell-Walsh (2-7) finished the job to bowl Lymm out for just 75, with Chadbourne left stranded on 32no.

The emphatic result means promotion is a distinct possibility with Barns now just three points adrift of Stockport Georgians in second place with four games remaining.