Shalith Fernando stars for Balderton Cricket Club
A sparkling century from Shalith Fernando fired Balderton to a long-awaited victory in the Nottinghamshire Premier League on Saturday.
The Sri Lankan smashed 166 not out as Balderton beat Anston by eight wickets in their Division Two clash.
It was only their second league win of the season and their first since the opening day of the campaign with Fernando in fine form.
He plundered 20 fours and 10 sixes in his 90-ball innings as Balderton successfully chased down their target with plenty of overs to spare.
They had put seventh-placed Anston into bat after winning the toss and took wickets at regular intervals to dismiss their hosts for 261.
Buddika Karawgodalage had top-scored with 71 for Anston while Alex Dickinson was the pick of the Balderton attack.
He took 4-41 from 8.2 overs while Ryan Charlesworth and Pual Colcomb both collected a couple of wickets each.
Balderton began well in their reply with Charlesworth opening with Fernando and they immediately took the home bowling to task.
The duo put on 141 runs for the first wicket until Charlesworth fell for 62 after being caught by Harry Pearson off the bowling of Charlie Pearson.
Despite losing Chale Neshaharan for 12, there was no stopping Fernando as he continued his run spree to secure the win in the 31st over.
Balderton remain at the foot of the table despite the victory and are 17 points adrift of Thoresby Colliery.
However, they will go into Saturday's home clash of the bottom two buoyed by breaking their losing streak.
There was also success for Balderton's second team as they recorded their win of the South Nottinghamshire League season.
They beat Cheers Cricket by nine runs in a close Division F contest which boosted their hopes of escaping the danger zone.
Sam Ross top-scored with 71 while Tim Clipsham added another 70 as Balderton made 210-8 from their 40 overs after batting first.
Ross then led the home bowling attack by taking three wickets while Ben Hall and Alan Jackson claimed two each as Cheers were restricted to 201-9 at the end of their 40 overs.
