Wakefield Thornes hold their nerve to win thrilling Crowther Cup tie

​The tie remained in the balance until with 10 balls remaining the Barnsley team lost their last wicket to fall two runs short of Thornes’ 176 total.

At 148-5 with opener William Nicholson still out in the middle, holding the inning together, the Miners looked set to overhaul the first innings score comfortably.

But the dismissal of Nicholson for 49 – caught behind by Jonathan Scott off the bowling of Adam Naz began to swing the game back towards the Wakefield team.

The wicket sparked the loss of three more for nine runs, leaving Barnsley on 157-9, requiring a further 20 with their last pait at the crease.

They got 17 of those runs only for the final twist of the match to be in Thornes’ favour as Joshua Bird was caught by Jamie Howarth off the bowling of Junaid Yousaf to leave the Miners all out on 174.

It was Yousaf’s only wicket success all day, but Naz took 3-26 and Eglestone 3-50.

Thornes’ innings had featured a good recovery after they found themselves on 10-3 the deep in trouble at 45-7.

Skipper Howarth tried to hold the innings together with a knock of 31, but it was not until Yousaf and James Cuthbertson came together that real hopes of victory were raised.

Yousaf hit 45 while Cuthbertson smashed five sixes and proved the only batsman to reach a half century as he made 52 from 48 balls before being run out to be the last man to go.

Wakefield Thornes’ first team was left frustrated a day earlier as their intended Yorkshire Southern Premier League game at Aston Hall was abandoned without a ball being bowled due to the wet weather in the week leading up to it.

That made it three abandoned games already in 2023 for the Wakefield team who have won their only two completed league games so far.

Wakefield Thornes’ third team made short work of winning their Pontefract Division Three match against Brodsworth Main, bowling their opponents out for 68 before going onto win by five wickets.

Bowlers Ayaz Ali Masood (3-11), Abdullah Asim (3-0) and Hasan Khan (3-19) did the damage.