FORMER Colne player Qasim Ali hit his maiden Lancashire League century to condemn his old club to a second-succesive heavy defeat.
Even though the sun shone at Turf Moor on Sunday, it still doesn’t feel like cricket weather.
The sparseness of the crowd suggests that the supporters haven’t yet got into the swing of the new season, although the numbers watching the cricket did increase after the Premier League season reached its stunning climax.
The sunshine did not lead to any brighter cricket from Colne, who fell to another big defeat in this mini-derby against Burnley.
Ali is now opening the batting for Burnley, and he took advantage of his former club’s bowling with his first league century.
Bharat Tripathi and Daniel Pickup were dismissed for six and four respectively, both lbw to openers Shaddley van Shalkwyk and Matthew Walker, but Ali was dominating the innings to the extent that the score was 99-2 when the second wicket went down.
Van Shalkwyk battled on in a marathon 22-over spell, taking 5-74 with four lbws and the other bowled.
Walker bowled a good opening spell, but the other bowlers, Kurrum Nazir and Nathan Whitehead, both took a lot of punishment.
Van Shalkwyk finally dismissed Ali for 114, but although Whitehead was able to pick up a couple of wickets, Colne could not bowl Burnley out for the bonus points, the runs flowed freely, and Burnley finished 258-9.
Colne’s innings lasted just 30 overs.
Burnley pro Adnan Rasool bowled his off breaks for 15 of those overs from the football field end, and took 8-23.
Justin Nutter, opening the batting, top scored with 16; four other batsmen reached double figures, and Colne were bowled out for 74 – a 178-run defeat.
This weekend is a double header, with the first XI at home to Rishton tomorrow and away to Accrington in the Worsley Cup on Sunday.
As usual, the second XI play the reverse fixtures on both days.
Wickets are pitched at 1 p.m.