Billy Briggs Cup final: NQ (133/8) beat Mangoes (126/9) STEVE TINNISWOOD

reports from Pleasington playing fields

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JONATHAN BARRY SIX-wicket hero Khalid Afif may have won this match for NQ but it was skipper Tariq Hassan's attention to detail that turned out to be the deciding factor.

For task-master Tariq was at his nit-picking best as he arranged and re-aranged his field for every ball and changed his bowling attack until he found that winning formula.

And he took his time doing it.

"Come on Tariq, your worse than Goughy" was the shout from one disgruntled on-looker refering to Hassan's same go-slow approach as England's Darren Gough.

"90 minutes to bowl 20 overs," the on-looker added.

However, it certainly did the trick for Hassan who schemed and plotted Mangoes downfall -- and he wasn't happy until he finally got it right. And that was when he used his sixth and final bowler Khalid Afif.

But what a stroke of genius that turned out to be.

Up until then Second Division leaders Mangoes looked well capable of reaching First Division NQ's 133 target.

Mangoes started their reply like a team boasting a season-long unbeaten record. For Raiz Ahmed and Iftikhar Ahmed were soon into their stride and quickly began to eat into NQ's total.

However Hassan's first tactical masterstroke was to bring himself on in the fifth over and he made an immediate impact when he bowled Iftikhar for 11. He then went on to concede 10 runs off the remainder of the over due to some wayward bowling.

Raiz and new man Tufail Hussain wasted no time in hurry the total along. So much so that when Riaz was stumped stumped by Yasir Hussain, again off the bowling of Hassan, Mangoes were more than half way to their total with plenty of overs to spare.

However it all began to go pear-shaped for Mangoes in the 14th over.

First, Hassan claimed his third wicket when he dismissed the free-scoring Tufail, again aided by wicket keeper Yasir.

Then came the decisive breakthrough when Afif claimed an astonishing five wickets in just 11 balls.

Shell-shocked Mangoes did not know what had hit them as the slumped from 100-3 to 110-8 as the lethal Afif claimed the wickets of Sohail Siddique, Aftab Aslam, Ansal Mahmood, Khalid Safullah and Zeeshah Hussain.

Possible victory turned to definite defeat as they were in danger of being bowled all out.

Afif claimed one more wicket, when he trapped Zeeshah Hussain lbw, in the penultimate over.

That left Mangoes' tail-enders Inam Choudhry and Amed Ahemd needing 14 off the last over and they only managed seven of them thanks to some sensible bowling from Qaiser Masood.

NQ's healthy scoreline was due to a fine innings from Qaiser Masood who hit a swash-buckling 36 off just 20 balls which including seven fours.

He was cleaned bowled by Sohail Siddique going for a third consecutive boundary with just two balls of the innings remaining.

The innings was short and sweet but very enjoyable to watch.

Earlier, Mohammed Iftikhar got NQ off to a good start and reached 33 before he was bowled by Tufail. Captain Hassan and hero Afif weighed in with 18 runs apiece before falling to Tufail and Anam Ullah Chaudhry respectively -- who each claimed three wickets. It should have been the start of something great for Mangoes but Tariq Hassan had a few more plans left up his sleeve -- and he took his time using them!