Bradford Cricket League: Dominic Richardson leads way as Altofts win promotion clash with Great Preston

Victory lifted ​Altofts back up to second place with Preston slipping off the top down to third.

The race is likely to go down to the wire now with both having two games remaining and just two points separating them. New leaders Scholes are also only three points head.

It had the feel of a must-win match and opener Dominic Richardsson set the tone for the Altofts performance with a knock of 93, including 16 boundaries.

He was backed up by Myles Robinson (36) and Jacques Porter (22) as Altofts posted a 235 score.

Set a revised target of 218 from 42 overs, Great Preston were all out for 182 with South African Jacques Porter taking 5-65.

Scholes returned to the top with the narrowest victories over fourth-placed Wakefield St Michael’s.

They had last man Reece Drake to thank for steering them to their target of 127 with five balls to spare. Coming in with his side in trouble at 90-9, Drake hit two sixes and two fours in an unbeaten 24 to see them home with one wicket to spare.

Defeat was tough on Kashif Najam (4-20) and Cavan Connolly (4-53) while Lawrence Morton (36) and Nazakat Hussain (32) had top scored in the St Michael’s total of 113-7.

In the Premier Division, Ossett were undone by their former bowler, Gurman Randhawa, as his 4-40 played a big part in them being bowled out for 105 against second-placed New Farnley after being set a revised target of 168 from 30 overs.

Skipper William Wade battled to make 27, but they went on to lose by 62 runs after Farnley had made 216 with Archie Houghton (3-57) doing most to restrict them.

East Ardsley’s relegation to Division Two was all but confirmed after a hugely disappointing 10-wicket defeat to Birstall when they were skittled out for just 36 with paceman Waqas Khan (5-17) and spinner Dave McCallum (3-4) doing much of the damage.

Sandal were involved in a thriller with Batley, but lost out by two runs in their Division One match.

In a game that swung one way then the other Batley had to recover from 46-7 to reach 123 after Michael Carroll (4-22) and Kasun Madushanka (4-42) enjoyed success with the new ball.

Sandal were unable to get past the modest score, although they went close with Brandon Hewlett (30) top scoring and Danny Riley hitting 25.

Sam Noden (9) and Carroll (10no) put on 13 for the last wicket before the former was last man out with Sandal agonisingly two runs short.

Already relegated Wrenthorpe came close to a victory, but went down by nine runs to Buttershaw St Paul’s in Division Two.

Despite the efforts of Shakrukh Ali (3-30) and Sad Hamid (3-51), St Paul’s made 234-8.

Wrenthorpe, set a DLS target of 198, were then bowled out for 188 with Muhammad Addas (65) and Ali (57) almost getting them over the line for what would have been only their second win of the season.