A captain’s knock from Dan Oldfield steered Long Sutton to an impressive six-wicket win over Freiston on Saturday.
Skipper Oldfield cracked an unbeaten 94 as Sutton chased down a target of 170 to win the South Lincs and Border League East One clash at Paradise Field.
Josh Baker (3-39), Rob Simpson (2-30) and Oldfield (2-12) had earlier impressed with the ball as Freiston were bowled out for 169 in 40 overs.
Oldfield then dominated the Sutton reply with an unbeaten innings that included nine fours and two sixes, ending six shy of a century when his side reached 170-4 in the 38th over.
Sutton made a super start with the ball and Baker removed Zeeshan Saeed for a duck early on.
But Richard Paul (21) and Waseem Ilyas (54) brought some stability to the innings, before both fell to the spin of Simpson.
Abdul Moeed (34) also scored well in the middle order for Freiston, but Sutton’s bowlers never let them get away.
Adam Whitaker (1-43) and Joe Whitaker (1-10) also bagged wickets to leave the hosts with every chance of a second win from three games.
Sutton’s response wasn’t a one-man affair, but Oldfield was the mainstay.
Raj Sangha (3) was out to Usman Ahmed (1-27) early on, while Adam Wright (9) found himself trapped LBW by Ashok Kumar (1-19).
But Oldfield was looking imperious and pushed his side towards their target with support from Angus Bell (22), before Zakir Gatta (1-35) ended his resistance.
Jimmy Harrison followed for a duck after being cleaned up by Stewart Kirtley (1-7), but Oldfield and Chris Booth (19 not out) saw the hosts home.
It was a shame that Oldfield’s heroics didn’t quite yield a century, but the skipper consoled himself with the team collecting the maximum haul of 20 points.
A tougher test awaits Sutton this Saturday, however, as they make the trip to leaders and South Holland neighbours Moulton Harrox (1pm).
