ANOTHER toothless Leamington performance with bat and ball handed Tamworth an easy victory and leaves Spa in a Birmingham League Division One relegation dogfight as the season moves towards its climax.
Tamworth were asked to bat first on another easy paced Arlington Avenue deck and they made a confident start, primarily through England U19 star Liam Banks.
He had moved smoothly to 59, with eleven boundaries, when he was caught by William Mashinghe off Neil Smith.
Jacob Flower soon followed but Tamworth rebuilt through Stuart Burrows and Scott Daly.
The score moved to 159 before Daly was run out by Mashinghe for 26.
Jason Jakeman joined Burrows as the total motored past 200.
Masinghe then took over proceedings having Burrows caught by Smith for 59 and Jakeman for 51.
He then cut through Tamworth’s tail like a hot knife through butter with the last four batsmen all clean bowled.
Tamworth faded to 254 all out with Mashinghe finishing with 6-52 off 14 overs.
In reply Leamington made their usual poor start and were soon at 12-2.
They rallied a little through Jon Wigley and Luke de Souza but they were unable to capitalize on decent starts as Tamworth’s opening bowlers Josh Bowker and James Rudge made hay, reducing Spa to 42-5.
The introduction of Ed Smith provided no respite for the home side who slipped further to 59-8, staring a humiliating defeat in the face.
Mashinghe then took centre stage with a tremendous counter-attack which saved some pride for Leamington.
He blasted ten fours and six sixes in an unbeaten 88 as Tamworth’s change bowlers were put to the sword.
However, Tamworth managed to winkle out Leamington’s tail and the hosts were dismissed for a paltry 139 with over 18 overs unused.
Spa travel to Wellington on Saturday.
