Usk Cricket Club progress to the next round of the Welsh Cup – Free Press Series

Newport CC 1sts (183 all out) lost to Usk CC 1sts (187-3) by 7 wickets in the Welsh Cup.
Two three-wicket hauls by Tamoor Zafar and Harawal Wassam boosted Usk after a run of three defeats.
After losing the toss and being asked to field, Usk’s bowling attack was in top form with Ben Jones (2-25 and 1 maiden), Joe Peacock (1-57) and Matthew Williams (1-33) reducing their hosts to a low target achieved in 38.3 overs.
In reply and despite early departures of Hugo Caldicott and Ollie Rayner, Wassam carried his bat while making a spirited 66 and skipper Elliott Doyle (39) and Zafar 55 not out saw the visitors home with 18 overs unused.
After the match Doyle said he was pleased with the ‘much-needed’ win.
“Hard work in the field first innings as it always is in the sun at Newport but Ben Jones and the three spinners in particular were reliable as ever and kept Newport to a score that we were happy with.
“Two early wickets for their opener will have made some a bit nervous after seeing how we’ve battled the last couple of weeks  but the middle order came through this time and got the job done, comfortably in the end, with 39 for myself and an unbeaten 66 and 55 for Harawal Wassam and Tamoor Zafar seeing us home.
“We are away to Malpas in the next round in two weeks’ time.”
However, a day earlier after their defeat against Cardiff in the South Wales Premier League Division 1, Doyle was less happy.
Usk were all out for 168 runs chasing their hosts’ total of 196-9, falling 18 runs short.
Doyle recognised that he needs to stop the current run of three defeats.
“The match was reduced to 42 overs after overnight rain,” he said later.
“We were a couple of men down in the bowling attack, Matt Marriott was away this week and Sam Crisp has gone home after uni so the guys did really well to manage the overs between five of them.
“It allows very little margin for error but they did a really good job.
“A couple of costly drops in the field meant Cardiff scored more than they should have but that chase should have been manageable for our batting order.
“Unfortunately we have a lot of guys short of runs at the moment which, hopefully, is just a phase we’re going through.
“It’s hard to analyse it too much when it’s just a series of guys managing to get out in their own ways but on an individual level there’s just a lot of improvement needed.”
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