Kimberley march on in league and cup as wins keep coming

Kimberley Institute’s brilliant summer showed no signs of stopping as they enjoyed more success in the league and cup.

In the Nottinghamshire Premier League, Institute maintained their 100 per cent record with a five-wicket win at Notts & Arnold Amateur to stay 20 points clear of the pack at the top.

Dilhan Cooray was in the runs in both games for Kimberley over the weekend. Photo: Submitted

placeholder image — Dilhan Cooray was in the runs in both games for Kimberley over the weekend. Photo: Submitted

After winning the toss and fielding first, Kimberley’s bowlers kept a tight reign on the Amateur innings throughout with three wickets each for Aatish Kean Maharaj (3-36) and Alex King (3-25) as Notts & Arnold were all out for 219 in 50 overs, opener Arnav Jumle top-scoring for the hosts with 55.

Kimberley lost two early wickets in reply, but half-centuries from Rob Sutton (68) and Martin Weightman (63no) ensured there were no further alarms, Dilhan Cooray (47) finishing the job off at 223-5 in 48.2 overs.

Things were a lot closer the following day as Kimberley edged home by just five runs at home to Derbyshire side Denby in the first round of the Beechwood Used Car Centre Premier Cup.

Batting first, Kimberley were in trouble at 50-4 but half-centuries from Cooray (77) and Seb Sayer (65) – the pair putting on 101 for the fifth wicket – got them up to 230 all out in 39.4 overs, Ben Scott and Charlie Wilson both taking three wickets each for Denby.

But the game seemed over for Kimberley after PI Burgoyne (108) and Max Cherry (46) took Denby to 157-1.

But, as they had the previous day, Maharaj (3-37) and King (3-50) took six wickets between them as Denby lost eight wickets for just 68 to end up 225-9 in 40 overs.