PIETER Swanepoel had a box seat at Woodlands on Tuesday night.

The home skipper was at the non-striker's end as Sarfraz Ahmed clobbered 70 of 26 balls in a stand of 91 as they defeated Bradford & Bingley by 19 runs to reach the semi-finals of the JCT600 Bradford League's Twenty20 Cup.

"I never get tired of watching him bat," said the former Yorkshire player, with Ahmed hitting six sixes and six fours on an evening when no Woodlands batsman failed.

"I just kept telling him 'keep your head down and watch the ball'."

Duncan Snell (34) and Sam Frankland (37) got things moving in an opening partnership of 65 before Jordan Laban (26) and Swanepoel (39no) weighed in as only Noman Ali and Scott Etherington maintained control with the ball.

However, Chris Thompson kept up his love affair with Albert Terrace by smashing 70 in only four balls more than the Pakistani.

He struck five sixes and six fours as Bingley replied to Woodlands' 211-4 with a very creditable 192-8, with Ahmed completing a good evening by bowling his four overs for only 28 while Scott Richardson took 3-35.

Hanging Heaton completed the last-four line-up alongside the Pudsey clubs and Woodlands after beating Morley by 11 runs at Scatcherd Lane.

David Stiff (39) and Joe Fraser (34) helped the Batley club to 135-6, with Kashif Naveed's 37 being the mainstay of the hosts' 124-6 reply.

James Byrne took 2-21 and Gary Fellows 2-28 after Naveed (2-27) and Ben Jenkinson (2-26) had earlier starred with the ball for Morley.

"It is a strong semi-final line-up for finals day," said Swanepoel – Woodlands face hosts Pudsey St Lawrence while Pudsey Congs meet Hanging Heaton a week on Sunday.

"But we are not putting ourselves under pressure. We are just going to enjoy it and that is what I tell Saffy (Ahmed) to do.

"He hits such a clean ball and has such long levers. His scoring arc is generally from long on to cow corner but if you bowl it down the leg-side, he can flick you over the square-leg boundary.

"It was a good innings – but not as good as the one on Monday, May 25 at home to Farsley in the league, when he scored 75 (seven sixes and seven fours off 36 balls) as we recovered from 53-8 to get to 172 and bowled Farsley out for 45."

Woodlands are currently second in Division One on 127 points, 25 behind Pudsey St Lawrence, and have a tough match tomorrow at Pudsey Congs.

"St Lawrence have a bit of a lead, so we have to keep on winning just to keep in touch," said Swanepoel.

"But it was a pity that our match against them was rained off on April 25 after we had made 295-6 and they were 38-0 after eight. That would have been interesting."