THE SEARCH for a first win of the 2016 season continues for LEAMINGTON after they fell to a six-wicket defeat away at Wolverhampton on Saturday.
Leamington remain firmly rooted at the bottom of the Birmingham League Premier Division table after falling to their sixth consecutive defeat.
A familiar pattern has emerged this season with a relatively inexperienced team losing the toss and batting first.
This happened once more at Wolverhampton, whose side included Worcestershire’s Tom Fell and former India test player Wasim Jaffer, holder of 31 caps, scorer of more than 50 first-class centuries.
Leamington’s early order showed its brittle nature with three cheap wickets before Jon Wigley and Lee Hopkins steadied the ship somewhat taking the score to 92 before Wigley was caught for 46.
Hopkins fell soon after for 27, and Leamington were thankful to a defiant innings from Nabeel Asghar whose 46 took Leamington to 185 all out in the 54th over.
For Wolves, promising youngster Zen Malik took 4 for 23, and there were two victims apiece for South African Johannes Bothma, former Middlesex star Usman Arif and Ben Twohig.
In response, Wolves were always in the box seat and although there was a slight wobble at 60 for 3 as Asghar added a wicket to two early strikes from Tom Warner – the prized wickets of Fell and skipper Dan Bowyer.
However, the Staffordshire side were always in control. Jaffer made a cultured unbeaten 51, and with support from the middle order, in particular Twohig, Wolves eased to a victory by six wickets with more than 11 overs in hand.
