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Kenny Thirun takes the plaudits after taking the wicket of Burnham's Adnan Malik on Saturday

BASINGSTOKE and North Hants gave themselves a welcome morale boost ahead of next weekend's top-of-the-table clash with Farnham Royal, after a comfortable five-wicket win against visiting Burnham on Saturday.

And, on the same day, the leaders lost at Buckingham to reduce the gap at the top of the Home Counties League division two west to 19 points.

Victory over Burnham completed the first league double of the season for the May's Bounty men, after they beat them by three wickets on the opening day of the season in May.

Ben Foxley was the star with the bat, with a brilliant unbeaten 73, while spin bowler Keith Harris had a good day with the ball, taking four wickets.

Basingstoke skipper Mitch Stokes won the toss and put Burnham into bat, opening the bowling himself along with Kenny Thirun.

The visitors had reached 11 after six overs when Khurran Saba was the first man out, caught by Darren Rouse off a Stokes delivery.

That brought Burnham skipper Mohameed Fazal (42) to the centre and, along with Ekhis Miah (31), they moved the score onto 74, before Stokes (2-62) struck a second time. This time Jon Govett was the man to take the catch.

By the 20-over mark, the visitors had reached 100, but had lost another wicket as Jonathan Bradley (1-25) on his first team league debut, snapped up Burnham's top scorer Fazal.

Basingstoke spin bowler Keith Harris

Worse was to follow as, with just an over left before lunch, Thirun's hard work paid off as he trapped Adnan Malik (16) leg before. That left the visitors on 111-4 off 38 overs at the interval.

Only three runs were added following the restart before Thirun (2-44) struck again. Bradley took the catch as Shaid Nadeem returned to the pavilion having scored just five.

Experienced spin bowler Keith Harris (4-25) then put the skids on the visitors' innings. His first six overs yielded just eight runs and saw the capture of Yasir Hussain's (5) wicket.

Harris then trapped Harveer Gandam leg before for 14, as Burnham struggled to 145-7 with only 10 overs left.

The following over saw them lose another wicket, thanks to a great throw from Bradley out by the pavilion boundary which allowed Nigel Williamson to take off the bails and end Rizwan Nadeem's innings without score.

Burnham number eight Awais Basharat (34) produced some late big hitting to up the total, before Russell Droy took a smart catch, once again from a Harris delivery.

It was left to the veteran bowler to finish the job off as he clean bowled Meddassar Nawaz (1) to leave Burnham all out for 171.

The Basingstoke reply did not get off to the best of starts as Droy (8) was back in the pavilion with the score on 12.

Rouse, who had been promoted up the order, was the next man out. His innings of 19, which included four fours, ended when he was bowled by pace man Gandam.

Lee Nurse (12) and Stokes (16) quickly perished and, at 74-4, the home side were making hard work of the victory and losing wickets every five overs.

It was left to a match-winning partnership between Ben Foxley and Dean Nurse (30), to put the team on track, as they guided Basingstoke to tea on a score of 118-4.

After the interval, the pair continued to build on their partnership, and Foxley completed a fine half-century in 102 balls with a shot through mid-wicket which yielded a couple of runs.

The next over saw Nurse bowled by Gandam, as the Burnham bowler knocked over his leg stump to end a fifth-wicket stand of 69.

Soon after, a straight four from Foxley brought up the 150 and it was left to Govett to hit the winning boundary as Basingstoke secured the win with 50 minutes to spare.

A delighted Basingstoke skipper Stokes said: "I was happy to put them in, but the pitch has done something all game.

"Ben's knock was excellent and Harry (Keith Harris) got a cheeky four wickets at the end of the their innings. It sets us up perfectly for next week's big game."

10:05am Tuesday 15th July 2008

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