In Lucas Fettes Norfolk League Division Five New Buckenham 152-9, Lowestoft B 162.If football's a 'funny old game', then this match proved that cricket can take a walk on the wild side too.

In Lucas Fettes Norfolk League Division Five New Buckenham 152-9, Lowestoft B 162.

If football's a 'funny old game', then this match proved that cricket can take a walk on the wild side too.

Lowestoft batted first and openers Udell and McAvoy took advantage of the very fast outfield and a few near misses to rattle up 40 in quick time.

But the introduction of leg spinner Yousef Khan - on his debut for Buckenham - changed all that. He had Udell caught in the deep by Braithwaite with his third ball, then bowled Reynolds for a duck in his third over. Marshall struck from the other end, the runs began to dry up and Lowestoft were struggling.

But they rallied, punishing a few poor balls, before the match shifted back into Buckenham's favour when Braithwaite got rid of McAvoy for 42.

Marshall mopped up a further three wickets, giving him a very tidy 4-26 and Carl Sturman finished it all off with two wickets in the 43rd over.

So a relatively modest target for Buckenham? Not exactly - especially when they found themselves floundering at 19-5. But Khan steadied things and with Ashley Ling batting down the order after pulling a hamstring the pair started to give the Buckenham score a shade of respectability.

Khan holed out for 21 but Nigel Frame showed all that work in the nets hadn't gone to waste with a crisp 26 and with Ling (14) took Buckenham's score to 79-5. More or less halfway there; loads of overs left, then within the space of a couple of balls Frame and Ling had gone and one would have thought Buckenham's chances had departed too.

Sturman thumped a couple of sixes to keep the Buckenham score on track but another crash of timber left them with one wicket left and 50 odd to get.

Richard Halfacree who had earlier kept wicket really well, and Marshall, who will admit that runs for him are usually rare, began to chip away at the target.

They didn't quite make it, the innings closing on 152-9, but their effort was astounding. Very early days of course but there's all sorts of potential starting to show for Buckenham.