SALEM Athletic, who have appeared in a remarkable eight successive finals, have retained the Bradford Mutual Sunday School League's H Broadbent Trophy.

The holders defeated Great Horton Church by four wickets at Manningham Mills Sports Association to make it a nap hand of victories in that time.

Church elected to bat and made a steady start, being 42-0 after 13 overs.

However, Sajad Ahmed (25) fell at that score in the 14th over in Yasir Khan's third over but that only brought Mohammed Bilal to the crease, who made a quickfire 42 from 23 balls, including some huge sixes, and shared a partnership of 53 from 42 balls with Faizaan Khalid (31) before being bowled in Khan's sixth over.

This left Church on 95-2 after 20 overs and they looked on course for 200, but they reckoned without Khan, who took two wickets in two balls in the 21st over, dismissing Khalid caught behind and Abid Hussain.

That made it 106-4 and Salem maintained their stranglehold as Church collapsed to 143, despite the efforts of Nazakat Ali (23).

Salem started their innings aggressively and were 31-0 after 5.3 overs before the first wicket fell, with Shahid Iqbal (16 off 14 balls) being bowled by 14-year-old Kaif Malik.

Salem were then cruising at 60-1 after eight overs, prompting a bowling change at both ends.

This bore fruit as opener Tahir Rashid (33 off 33 balls) was brilliantly caught by Malik at long on off Sajad Ahmed. In the next over, Waseem Khan was caught by Ahmed of the bowling off Zaheer Hussain, which left Salem reeling at 62-3 after 11 overs.

This brought experienced batsmen Mohammed Awais Ahmed and Masood Ahmed Jnr to the crease, and they sharing a fourth-wicket partnership of 51 off 53 balls.

The slow bowlers then made life difficult for Salem by taking the key wickets of Awais (19) and Ahmed Jnr in the 21st and 22nd overs to make it 113-5.

Church were sensing victory and applied pressure via tight bowling, which caused the runs to dry up.

However, Salem managed to get to the target at 144-3 off 26,3 overs, with some sensible batting from youngster Mohammed Sudais and veteran Abid ur Rehman.

Man of the match was Yasir Khan for his 6-34 for Salem.