On a dry day at Weetwood the Academy won the toss and elected to bat.
The opening pair of James Wharton and captain Ben Birkhead put on 31 before the first wicket fell in the tenth over. Two quick wickets fell to leave the home side struggling at 34 for 3. Tom Loten and Matthew Revis then put on 36 for the fourth wicket before Revis was out with the total on 70. Barnes was the next batsmen to be dismissed to leave the Academy at 90 for 5 in the 30th over. Harry Duke joined Loten and the pair but on a substantial partnership of 68 from 83 balls before Loten became the sixth wicket to fall at 158 in the 44th over. Loten had contributed an excellent 71 (95 balls with 6 fours) with his 50 from 78 balls. The remaining batsmen managed to survive the final overs with Duke reaching his half century also from 78 balls and he finished on 51 not out. The Academy finished on 179 for 9 from the allocated 50 overs with three batsmen run out.
The wickets were shared between David Wainwright 13 overs, 2 maidens, 2 for 32, Eddie Morrison 13 overs 2 maidens 3 for 55 and Amir Ditta 2 for 13 from 7 overs with 2 maidens.
Similar to what happened in the Academy innings earlier, the Castleford openers put on 30 for the first wicket and then lost the next two with only one run added to leave the visitors at 31 for 3 in the 11th over. The Academy bowlers continued to put pressure on the batsmen and wickets fell at regular intervals as Castleford were struggling at 84 for 8 in the 28th over. The final two batsmen provided some resistance however before the visitors were 107 all out from 41.2 overs. Top scorer was captain David Wainwright with 21.
Wicket takers for the Academy were Matthew Taylor 1 for 21, Harry Sullivan 2 for 23 from 13 overs with 3 maidens, Tom Loten 1 for 14, Josh Sullivan 3 for 20 from 9 overs with 4 maidens and Bilal Anjam 2 for 6.
It was a better all round display from the Academy to achieve their first points of the season in the third game and an outright victory (10 points to 0 points).
Andrew Hinchliffe – Yorkshire Academy scorer
