REPORT FROM FINALS DAY

Preston won the Furness Building Society Twenty20 Northern Premier Cricket League Cup after a highly successful Finals Day at Netherfield CC.
They defeated host club Netherfield by 90 runs in the final after edging past Darwen by three wickets in the second semi-final.

A highly successful exhibition of the best of Northern League cricket began at 11am at the beautifully appointed Netherfield ground. On a glorious summer's morning a good-sized crowd was treated to a superb exhibition of batting by the home professional Glen Batticciotto.

Batticciotto, who is a regular in Queensland's one day side, hit an imperious 100 off 54 balls including seven fours and five sixes against Morecambe.
Craig Walmsley (31) helped Batticciotto add 82 for the first wicket to lay down a solid foundation which was built upon by John Huck (42 not out off 24 balls) as Netherfield reached an imposing 211 for 3.
Graeme Cassidy was Morecambe's best bowler with two for 26 while pro Mandla Mashimbyi eventually dismissed his opposite number to a sharp catch by Phil Dennison.

Despite losing Ikram Ullah early on, Morecambe set about their daunting target positively with Phil Thornton looking in prime form.
Coming out of retirement for the competition, Thornton hit 35 off only 21 balls before he was bowled by Marc Hadwin.
Morecambe's hopes then depended on Mashimbyi who batted superbly to make 56 off only 30 balls before he was expertly caught by Chris Parry, the Netherfield captain, off Chris Miller.
Charles Boucher (20) and Dennison (23) batted well but Morecambe finished short on 164 for 7 as Scott Clement, bowling late in the innings, took two for 13.

Batticciotto was a clear choice of Man of the Match and won a bottle of Cockspur Rum.

Whereas the first semi final had produced 17 sixes the second one was an altogether different affair but none the less engrossing.
Darwen were restricted to 133 all out by a tight Preston bowling and fielding performance.

The key wicket was that of Darwen's South African professional David Wiese who was caught on the boundary by Dipesh Patel off the bowling of Lukman Vahaluwala for 10.
Kamran Anwar batted with maturity to sustain Darwen's innings, making 40 off 27 balls with good late order support from Stuart Hampson (18).
Vahaluwala took four for 13 for Preston with Zabeer Patel and Adam Parker each collecting two wickets.

Darwen bowled and fielded tigerishly and Cris Clarke ran out Sajid Patel and Nathan Jackson accounted for Parker with fine fielding.
David Fisher came in with Preston looking shaky at 79 for 5 and batted nervelessly, making a fine unbeaten 30 to steer his side home by three wickets in partnership with Zabeer Patel (15 not out).
Anwar finished with three for 22 to complete a fine all round performance but Fisher was chosen as Man of the Match.

After a quick turnaround Preston skipper and professional Bilal Asad won the toss and elected to bat in the final against Netherfield.

Openers Sajid Patel and Parker produced some outstanding batting to give Preston the initiative.
Parker made 35 off 24 balls before falling to a well-judged boundary catch by Walmsley after an opening stand of 71.
And Patel reached 48 before he was victim to a stunningly athletic catch in the deep by Batticciotto in front of the old scoreboard.
Valuable contributions by Vahaluwala (15), Fisher (23), Omar Malik (11) and Rehman Shah (20 not out) helped Preston set a challenging score of 178 for 8. Miller and Clement each took two wickets for Netherfield.

Vahaluwala struck a crucial early blow for Preston by bowling Batticciotto for 2.
In no time Netherfied slumped to 25 for 5 as Bilal Asad, defying a calf strain, collected three for 16 in a fiery opening spell, claiming the wickets of Walmsley, Alex Atkinson and Parry. The inspirational Preston skipper also ran out Huck with a fine piece of fielding.
There was no way back for Netherfield after that and their innings subsided to 88 all out with only Ben Haddrick (18), Shane Dixon (12) and last man Stuart Nixon (15) reaching double figures.
Zabeer Patel and Fisher each claimed two wickets for Preston.

Sajid Patel was chosen as Man of the Match by the third umpire, Peter Robinson.
Preston skipper Bilal Asad went up to collect the cup from League President Brian Standing.

"We are very pleased to lift the cup for the first time," said Bilal. "Netherfield are a very fine team and it took a very good team effort to defeat them. We had two very hard games back-to-back but the players came together in a very good way and we are delighted to win the cup, but I am sure that Netherfield will soon bounce back.
"It has been a very enjoyable day and a great experience for the players."

League President Mr Standing said: "Great credit goes to the organisers, sponsors and the Netherfield club for presenting Northern League cricket in the best possible light.
"We saw three excellent games and some outstanding individual performances from some highly talented players in front of a very good crowd.
"The Twenty20 competition has been a big success this year and this, our second Finals Day, was a memorable occasion and built upon the inaugural event at Blackpool last year.
"Netherfield staged the event superbly and the day was a huge success."