Success on road
CHESHIRE COUNTY CRICKET LEAGUE
AFTER a frustrating couple of weeks with the rain, Macclesfield travelled to Nantwich for the third away league game on the bounce.
With the sun out but rain around, skipper Rob Porter won the toss and elected to field first, hoping to make some early inroads to the Nantwich batting line up.
Taking the pace of the ball and opening the bowling with Raja partnering Melrose, it was the latter who bowled with superb control and skill to take the wickets of the Nantwich openers.
This brought Nantwich’s captain Doyle to the crease to join Cheshire wicket keeper Brown.
Both players looked to be positive, stroking any loose balls to the boundary and put the pressure on Melrose and Moores who had been brought into the attack.
Melrose broke the crucial partnership with the huge wicket of the captain Doyle for 25.
This brought in Johnston with the score at 82-3 and the game very much in the balance, Porter brought himself into the attack to bowl his well flighted straight breaks.
Brown moved onto a well-crafted 50 and the score moved to 127 before two quick wickets from Porter and the inform Birchall, with his first ball, removing the well set Brown.
John Birchall took another two quick wickets to put pressure on the Nantwich lower order at 132-7.
Macclesfield were hoping to mop up the tail, but a partnership of 47 between Australian fast bowler Louis Cameron and Cowap took Nantwich to a defendable total of 182 all out.
Golden arm Birchall finishing with four wickets, Melrose with three wickets in his 17 over spell and Porter with three as well.
Following the tea break, the lengthy Macclesfield batting line up were confident in knocking off the 182 in the 60 overs remaining of the game.
The Australian seemer started brightly for Nantwich, dismissing opener Oliver Marsden in the first over.
He continued to find his first class length, testing Birchall and Bertus as the overhead conditions became more favourable for the bowlers.
With rain around and the introduction of young spinner Patel, Bertus looked to be positive, but got far too excited and was bowled by Patel trying to hit another maximum.
Wickets tumbled as Macclesfield moved from 50-3 to 81-7 and found themselves under pressure.
This brought to the crease young Haharlan Greig and James Cross, Macclesfield’s agile wicket keeper.
They were determined to show their skills with the bat and showed real strength of character under pressure.
Haharlan was fully concentrated on chasing down the total, sniffing out any bad deliveries and playing some glorious shots down the ground with power and skill.
Along with Cross’ power, grit and cool head under pressure the two of them worked hard to put the pressure back on the home team as Cameron reached his maximum overs having taken 4 for 62 in his spell.
With Macclesfield edging closer to the total, the unlikely win seemed possible with plenty of time to go in the innings.
However in typical Macc fashion, a brilliant innings from Cross was ended 17 runs short of the total. Nantwich needed two wickets to win, Moores came to the crease to join Greig, and used his experience to help the pair see the side home in this crucial match to claim back to back league victories.
A mix of relief and excitement in the dressing room showed the team spirit and strength in depth the side has.
This weekend sees the big derby against leaders Alderley Edge.