Pratik Patel starred with both bat and ball on Sunday as Rajput Samaj eased their relegation fears with a home victory over Lankians.
Skipper Patel tore through the visitors' order to finish with 4-24 and then added a vital unbeaten 22 to help carry his side passed their target of 192 with four overs to spare.
Lankians elected to bat first and made a steady start through Rauathange (38) and Shamila (47) before the introduction of Patel stemmed the tide as he bowled well for his four-fer. The visitors were eventually bowled out for a respectable 192 from their 40 overs.
In reply the hosts lost their first wicket for just six runs, but a 66 run partnership between Tejas Sharma and Mehul Patel extinguished any early fears of collapse. When Sharma fell, 19 year old Paarth Darbar joined Patel at the crease and played splendidly to finish 44 not out.
With consistent double figure scores by the middle order including captain Patel's unbeaten 22, the target was reached comfortably with five wickets to spare.
Rajput were not so successful the day before as they crashed to a disappointing four wicket home defeat to bottom of the table United Sports.
Rajput chose to bat first and got off to a flying start with an opening partnership of 60, but a sudden collapse ensued soon after with all 10 wickets then falling for the next 45 runs. The visitors' bowler Imran proved the Rajput tormentor with figures of 7-24 as the hosts were skittled for a mere 105 in 41.1 overs.
United Sports made light work of the chase, surpassing their target in just 21.4 overs for the loss of six wickets.
Jaydip Mahida finished with outstanding figures of 6-36 which included a hat trick as the 2s recorded a well deserved victory over top of the table Neasden at home on Sunday.
Mahida picked up four wickets in one over as his brilliant spell of bowling managed to restrict the visitors to 183 all out as they chased the 211 Rajput had set earlier in the day.
The hosts opened the batting and immediately lost two quick wickets with just six runs on the board, but a crucial partnership of 78 between Nilesh Patel and Jesal Rathod managed to stabilise the innings.
Patel's impressive knock of 68 ended as he was given out LBW but this did not disturb the Rajput momentum and the arrival of Gurpeet Basran provided even more impetus as he smashed a quick fire half century to take the home side to 172-5.
Rajput lost the rest of their wickets for the addition of 21 runs to leave them with a respectable total of 211 all out.
The league leaders' response started well and with openers Vivek (27) and Deepak (18) ably supporting the brilliant score of 86 by Jalu they reached 179-6 and were going at a consistent rate of five runs an over.
Nevertheless the introduction of Mahida changed the game with his incredible four wicket over to skittle Neasden for just four more runs to claim victory and help fend off the threat of relegation.
