Clifton Village pair power past decent Mansfield Hosiery Mills total for victory

Mills had set a good total of 235-7, Kamal Manek hitting 73, but lost by eight wickets as Carnelley finished 114 not out and Shrestha 76 as Clifton made 236-2 in 42.1 overs.

Mills batsman Adam Dobb said: “We batted well and thought we were around par with the total.

“And it was nice to see Kamal get his first 50 of the season and get up and running.

“Overall we were relatively happy with how we batted, putting into practice a few things we'd worked on in training. But Clifton just batted really well.

“We could have done a little bit better with the ball in terms of hitting our areas.

“But at the same time you have to give credit to players who play well and two of their batsman made it look really easy for them. It was one of those days and we move on.”

With Mills electing to bat, Manek was backed by Charana Nanayakkare (34), Lahiru Jayarathne (34) and Stephen Gooding (23 not out), Suman Shrestha with 3-31 off eight overs.

But Clifton cruised home with Carnelley and Shrestha putting on 167 for the second wicket.

This Saturday Mills are away at Plumtree followed by an even harder trip on Bank Holiday Monday to leaders Cavaliers & Carrington.

“They will be a tough couple of games but it can be nice to have back-to-back games and hopefully we can see results go our way this weekend,” said Dobb.