Littlehampton claim local bragging rights with five-wicket win over Arundel

Heberlein crashed 12 fours and two sixes as he hit 90 not out from only 74 balls as Littlehampton chased down Arundel’s 255-8 with nine balls to spare.

Littlehampton captain Dan Rive had felt Arundel’s total was about par on a good wicket, although he had been hoping to keep them down to around 200 when they fell to 79-4.

Ryan Chitty went to the crease at the fall of the fourth wicket and he hit an unbeaten 76, from 68 balls, with 13 fours, as he put on 111 for the fifth wicket with Rohan Ardley, who struck a 73-ball 70 with 14 fours.

Mark Barry also hit a quickfire 14 down the order as Arundel finished their 53 overs on 255-8.

Rive was the stand-out bowler for Littlehampton with 5-52 from 18 overs and Amjad Mohsin, Amit Midha and Thomas Lee all picked up a wicket each.

Littlehampton started their reply well and Darren Bazley and Sajid Khan put on 93 for the first wicket.

Khan was first to go when he was caught by Ryan Chitty off father Neil’s bowling for 42.

Bazley was the third wicket to fall with the score on 176, after a 72-run stand with Heberlein, after striking 12 fours in his 83, before Matt Parnell was out shortly afterwards.

Michael Askew and Heberlein got Littlehampton to the brink of victory with a 56-run fifth-wicket stand but Askew fell for 22 with nine runs still needed. However, three successive Heberlein boundaries at the start of the 46th over off Neil Chitty gave Littlehampton the first derby bragging rights of the season.

Rive said: “It was very pleasing to chase it down.

“We had them 79-4 at the drinks break and were hoping to keep them below 200 after their previous performances.

“We were a bit disappointed that they got up to 250 but that was still just about par on our track.

“Their total of 255 was identical to the total we got in our first home game, so we knew we could get it and Chris and Darren batted very well.

“It was a game we had targeted to win and we’ve now got two wins from four. We’ve just got to make sure that when we lose games we pick up decent bonus points as we’ve got none and five in our defeats so far.”

Littlehampton now sit sixth in the table, one place above Arundel.