Rothley on top in high scoring match

IT WAS a high scoring match at Rothley Park against Barkby this weekend with some excellent batting and not-so excellent fielding on display.

Winning the toss and electing to bat, on what proved to be a decent wicket, Barkby set off like a train.

Opener Will Fazakerley raced to 50 off 30 balls and was ably supported by Stapleford and Tew who both registered their 50s in quick time. Rothley made life hard for themselves by dropping numerous regulation chances in the outfield and at one point it looked like a score well above 300 was possible. The drinks break would come at the right time for the home team and the second 25 overs would see them claw back control.

They would finally remember how to catch and wickets soon began to fall at regular intervals. Adam Hackett was the pick of the bowlers on the day.

His spell of 4-33 at the important death overs stemmed Barkby’s chances of putting the game out of Rothley’s reach, the away team finishing on 263.

Barely standing taller than the stumps, youngster Rickhil Vivekanand made an excellent debut, opening the Rothley batting with Irfan Karim. A solid start by the two enabled the likes of Kahn (89) and Hackett (32) to bat with freedom in the middle overs and Sam Ward to unleash some trademark reverse sweeps at the end.

Just like Rothley, Barkby suffered from a case of the drops and were left ruing several chances to really put the pressure on the home side.

As it was, Karim would be the mainstay of the innings, pacing his 84 not out perfectly so that Rothley would reach their 263 target comfortably with a few overs left.