IT WOULD be stretching it to say that Roscoe Tahttil left Undercliffe’s Heavy Woollen Cup hopes in tatters.

But it is fair to say that Kirkburton’s 29-year-old Sri Lankan professional was man of the match.

The compact left-hander helped to rescue some dodgy running between the wickets in the first-round tie at Intake Road, scoring 122 off 100 balls, including 14 fours and two sixes.

He found willing partners in Craig Fletcher (31), with whom he added 74 for the fifth wicket, Tom Burkinshaw (20) and John Keeling (15no), who added 54 with Tahttil for the seventh.

The Sri Lankan then took 4-41 with his mixture of off-spin and leg-spin, including a blistering caught and bowled to dismiss Nasir Jamal, took two other catches and was a lively presence in the field square of the wicket.

Kirkburton, fourth last season in the Huddersfield League Premiership, ended up on 276-7, with unlucky Undercliffe paceman Jamal bowling Ben Carrington only for the bails to blow off before the ball hit the stumps, resulting in a dead ball.

Jamal and fellow quick Zeeshan Qasim bowled their 20 overs for the concession of just 69 runs, but the rangy Alex Myers and the spinners found things harder.

Undercliffe’s reply, which started with 11 off the first over, was built around sheet-anchor opener Danish Hussain (55).

He found allies in skipper Byron Boshoff (39) and Jack McGahan (41), who had to up the tempo.

Boshoff put on 65 with Hussain before being give out lbw sweeping, while McGahan added 67, being out soon after Hussain to a slower ball from Kirkburton captain Andrew Smith, which he slashed to point.

Nick Smith, keeping wicket as Bailey Worcester was out with a quad injury, then took up the cudgels with a brisk 39, but no-one could stay with him and the innings closed on 230, meaning that Bradford League Division One side Undercliffe lost an entertaining tie by 46 runs.

Boshoff said: “Any Sunday cup game is a good outing for the lads and a good opportunity for some lads who might not get batting time in league games.

“It is just a good all-round experience for the whole team but it is never good to be on the losing side, and even though this is not the main cup for us, we still like to keep that momentum.”

Boshoff added: “It was a good performance by their overseas but I thought that that they got 20 too many as it was a 250 wicket.

“However, I thought that we could get the runs, it is a quick outfield and the wind was blowing to the short boundary so we still thought that if we built some partnerships, which we did after we lost our first wicket, and had wickets in hand near the end we thought that we could go at eight or nine an over.

“But we lost two or three wickets in the middle order, and my lbw decision was a 50-50 call.

“As for the league, we have the ambition to win it or at the very least be in the top two, but it not something that we talk about all the time as we focus on our processes rather than the end result.

“It is too early to say who else might be in the mix, and I haven’t played in this league before, but I have heard that Pudsey Congs have a decent team.”

Kirkburton were one of six Huddersfield League sides to progress, and Scholes claimed the biggest scalp, defeating visitors Farsley by 51 runs, with Jack Shelley scoring 68 and taking 3-57 for the winners.

Pudsey Congs lost by three runs to Broad Oak, which was tough on Yohan Mendis, who scored 92.

Eight Bradford League sides are in the last 16, but Bradford & Bingley will be breathing the biggest sigh of relief, only defeating South Yorkshire League Division One side South Kirkby by 17 runs, which was largely down to Jack Luxton’s 63.

Townville had their latest blockbuster against Woodlands, and this time the Castleford side edged it, winning by three wickets with two balls to spare.

Scott Richardson gave Woodlands a chance by making 56 not out as they recovered from 77-7 to 185-9, Conor Harvey taking 5-27, but Tom Brook was Townville’s hero with 61 not out, denying Kez Ahmed (4-22) and Woodlands another win.