ATHERTON CC appear to have landed a real gem in new professional Mihir Diwakar.

Following his five wicket debut match he turned it on with the bat in his second game to produce a fabulous innings of 83 not out to help his side to a massive 139-run win over neighbours A&T at Gin Pit.

Skipper Rob Clews lost the toss and the visitors were asked to bat on what turned out to be a difficult track.

Fourteen-years-old Karl Brown and Paul McLoughlin opened the innings but with the score on 18 Brown became the first of five victims for wicket-keeper Dave Clare. McLoughlin made steady progress in his usual unorthodox method but quickly lost Phil Wakefield and Phil West before sharing in a partnership of 37 with Mihir.

McLoughlin was finally out for 67, stumped off the bowling of Steve Walsh. The two Pauls, Brown and Walsh, fell cheaply, both to Walsh, before skipper Clews joined Mihir in the best partnership of the innings, 65.

Mihir was particularly severe on opposite pro Bazid Khan, hitting him for 22 off one over while Clews took great delight in despatching former Atherton stalwart Steve Walsh for two fours and six. He was eventually bowled by Khan for his top score of the season, 30.

Ian Nuttall punched a quickfire 20 from 15 balls while Mihir smashed three sixes off Khan's last over.

Highly unlikely

The innings finally closed on 222-9, a total that looked highly unlikely at 105-5 after 30 overs. Mihir's innings came off 76 balls and contained 5 fours and 5 sixes. For A&T, Walsh took 5-77 and Khan 3-66.

When the A&T reply got underway wickets began to fall at regular intervals until Tripathi and Khan came together in a partnership that looked promising for the home side. But after hitting Nuttall for a six, Tripathi tried to repeat the shot only to be well caught by Karl Brown on the boundary edge.

At this point Clews pulled one of his masterstrokes and introduced Phil Wakefield into the attack. After conceding just 15 runs from his first five overs, he proceded to clean bowl five batsmen including Khan for the addition on one run in the space of three overs. With Nuttall taking 3-32 and Mihir 2-34, the home side folded to 84 all out in the 30th over.

Atherton are in league action again on Saturday when Little Hulton visit Higham Park.