Challenge Match Cambs (222 all out) beat Hunts (135 all out) by 87 runs INDIFFERENT batting from Huntingdonshire saw them fall short against rivals Cambridgeshire at Waresley on Sunday. Veteran all-rounder Ajaz Akhtar scored 83 runs in 59 balls for Cambs

Challenge Match

Cambs (222 all out) beat Hunts (135 all out) by 87 runs

INDIFFERENT batting from Huntingdonshire saw them fall short against rivals Cambridgeshire at Waresley on Sunday.

Veteran all-rounder Ajaz Akhtar scored 83 runs in 59 balls for Cambs, proving to be the difference between the two sides.

Hunts skipper Jacques DuToit won the toss and invited Cambs to bat on a green wicket. The opening Cambs pair made a promising start but Craig Park claimed 3-16 in his first six overs to put the home side on top.

Cambs looked in trouble at 77-6 but Akhtar soon changed the game, though he was dropped twice on his way to 50 in just 27 balls.

Akhtar soon hit spinner Davis McCallum out of the attack, smashing 20 runs in a single over.

Captain DuToit brought himself on to end the carnage, taking 2-15 in 8.3 overs while Park finished with 3-40.

The Hunts reply began in similar vein to Cambridgeshire's, with a mid-innings stand between DuToit (28) and Park (15) offering promise.

However, Akhtar followed up his batting display by taking 2-22 and Michael Kay chipped in with 3-44 as the Hunts' tail folded.

Huntingdonshire manager Hedley Swannell said: "Out batting let us down, six players made it to double figures but only one went past 20, and that cost us."

Next up for Hunts is a match against the RAF at Godmanchester Town's ground on Tuesday, May 8.

* Huntingdonshire's Premier cricket team, Godmanchester Town, get their East Anglian Premier League season underway at the weekend. The team travel to Horsford.