RAMSBOTTOM professional Murali Kartik battled through the pain barrier to see his side through to their second consecutive victory in an amazing game at Acre Bottom on Saturday.
Once again the home side were asked to bat first in far from ideal conditions and with Colne's New Zealand paid man Andre Adams in a fiery mood, the early order batsmen were given a real working over.
Runs were at a premium and at the halfway stage the score stood at 53 for 2.
The resting of the powerful Kiwi brought light relief and David Bell and Mark Dentith took advantage of the situation before Dentith was unluckily judged lbw and Bell stumped.
This brought together John Harrison and Kartik, who was fortunate to be playing after twisting his ankle badly in an accident at home.
Despite his ability to move freely they enjoyed a partnership which took the score past the three figure mark before the Indian was well held on the long on boundary.
Harrison then took charge and, aided by Bobby Horrocks, added a tinge of respect to the final score, completing a well-earned half century in the process.
With conditions improving by the minute, as is the norm at Acre Bottom, it was necessary to get an early breakthrough in the Colne innings.
Matt Wilson had other ideas and he started to swing from the hip from the word go, hitting the Rammy pro, restricted to bowling off two paces, for a big six in only his second over.
The score raced into the 30s before Kartik dismissed both Ali and the dangerous Hunt an over later.
When Wilson fell to a brilliant diving catch by Mick Haslam at deep mod on Colne looked on the back foot but the dangerous Adams had just come to the crease and did he announce his arrival in style!
Having been totally deceived by the Rammy pro's first delivery he put the next ball straight out of the ground and over the river.
If this was not enough he followed up with two monster straight sixes in Kartik's next over then hit Chris Eardley nearly over the Paper Mill roof.
The game looked lost for the home side as the score had raced to 79 by the 20th over when the New Zealander looked for another big hit off the Ramsbottom professional.
This time the Indian spinner outthought him and beat him with the arm ball and skipper Hevingham pulled off a magnificent leg side stumping.
Even so the Rams were still second favourites as Colne had plenty of overs in hand to finish the job.
This they looked to be doing with consummate ease as Paul Wilson and Swarbrick steadily took the score along to 121 when the heavens open and the players rushed off the field.
A total of five overs were lost adn Colne resumed their innings needing to wreach a total of 146 with 9 overs remaining.
This looked a simple task on paper but when Wilson was run out in the first over back, doubts started to form in the opposition's mind and when two overs later Hevingham snapped up the dangerous Swarbrick off Kartik panic swept in.
Brilliant tight bowling from the pro and Mike Haslam saw three wickets tumble for the addition of only five runs in the next four overs leaving Colne's last pair needing 14 off the last two overs.
Although seven of these were made off the penultimate over it only needed one delivery from Kartik to wrap up the innings and give the home side the maximum 12 point victory and enable the paid man to finish with 6 for 55 off 22.1 overs.
Not bad for a guy bowling off two paces.
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