Rotherham Town skipper scents survival chance after close victory

Bilal Hanif, who hit 76 for Rotherham Town.

ROTHERHAM Town skipper Arslan Tariq insists their relegation fight is not lost after his team pulled off the tightest of wins last weekend.

A mankad from Tariq sealed a final-over victory over Rockingham by a single run and lifted Town off the bottom of YCSPL Division One.

“Can we stay up? I don’t think it’s impossible,” said the captain. “Apart from Ackworth, who are running away with the league, everyone is beating each other. If we win our next two games we might be just a couple of points away (from the safety line).”

Chasing 194 and needing three to win off the final over, Rockingham lost their final wicket thanks to Tariq’s quick thinking, catching the non-striking batsmen out of his crease.

“The batsman at the non-strikers end was backing up to sneak a single to tie the game and he was out of the crease before I even bowled,” he said. “They had four other run-outs as well. We fielded really well. We needed those points to get off the bottom and we need to carry this momentum on now.”

Bilal Hanif hit 76 and Jawad Saleem 54 for Town, who utilised eight bowlers. They host Oughtibridge tomorrow.

“It’s been hard because it’s a fresh team and although the players played good standard cricket, Division One cricket is a different beast,” added Tariq. “We’ve brought in bowling and fielding reinforcements and we’ve been really close for the last four or five weeks. At the start of the season we were getting bowled out for 50s and 60s. That’s not happened lately.”