Teenager Willman short on support
LITTLEBOROUGH’S encouraging start to the season came unstuck against a workmanlike Greenfield on Saturday at a cloudy Hare Hill.
Littleborough skipper Clinton Perrren won the toss and surprisingly inserted Greenfield on a wet wicket.
Sadly for him only one bowler, 17-year-old Lewis Willman, performed anything like and backed his skipper up.
He took a wicket in his first over thanks to a smart catch from Pye at silly mid wicket. In his first spell of seven overs he beat the bat on numerous occasions and should have picked up a wicket when a catch was dropped in the slips early on.
Unfortunately, this young and very fit 17 year can only bowl seven overs in a spell because of an ECB directive and had to come off – this was to Greenfield’s advantage as the rest of the attack, Miskella, Burl, Knight and Hussain, served up far too many boundary balls on a wet wicket as the innings finished on 214/8.
The pick of the batsmen was opener/keeper Gill who fell for an excellent 67 to Hussain courtesy of an excellent low catch by Miskella running in at long off.
When this wicket fell they could have kept the score to under 200 but the Boro attack let them get away again as surprisingly Willman was held back and they passed the 200 mark. Pro Moonsamy chipped in with 54.
If the Boro were going to keep their unbeaten start to the season going then a lot depended on skipper Perren who has passed 50 every time he has batted this season but it wasnt to be this time as he fell to a catch at mid off to the bowling of Cadd.
The skipper can’t and won’t be able to score heavily every week and this young Boro side will need to chip in as a team if the season is to be a success.
Pro Burl played a loose shot and got a leading edge and fell for 5. Opener Pye hung around and fell lbw for 13.
Miskella fell to a sharp caught and bowled chance off the impressive Woolley. Hussain tossed his wicket away with half the overs left and was stumped for 14. Knight and Hernon fell in quick succession and the home side were reeling at 67/7.
The returning pair of Barnes and Nash added some respectability to the score and scored 28 and 18 respectively as Boro were bowled out for 125.
If this young side learn from this experience then all will be well but they will definitely need to be keeping teams under 200 especially at home otherwise they will lose more than they win. Greenfield C Gill ct Miskella b Hussain .......................... 67 A Peters ct Pye b Willman ............................... 0 J Caudwell ct Hernon b Knight ................. 18 R Moonsamy st Hernon b Hussain ......... 54 B Wooley b Burl .................................................. 4 A Kruger ct Nash b Willman ......................... 36 M Ashworth st Hernon b Jones ................ 17 J Hepworth run out (Willman) ...................... 0 M Bird not out ...................................................... 1 Extras ..................................................................... 17 Total (8 wickets, 50 overs) .......................... 214 Bowling: Willman 10.0 3 20 2 1 0; Knight 8.0 2 34 1 1 0; Miskella 5.0 1 18 0 0 0; Burl 15.0 0 57 1 4 0; Hussain 10.0 1 59 2 2 0; Jones 2.0 0 17 1 0 0 Littleborough C Perren ct Moonsamy b Cadd ................ 17 T Pye lbw b Caudwell ..................................... 13 R Burl ct Kruger b Cadd ................................... 5 R Miskella c&b Wooley ..................................... 8 H Hussain st Gill b Moonsamy .................. 14 R Knight ct Bird b Wooley ............................... 3 M Hernon lbw b Wooley ................................. 0 J Barnes b Peters .............................................. 28 G Nash ct Kruger b Peters ............................ 18 L Willman ct Kruger b Cadd ........................... 6 P Jones not out .................................................... 1 Extras ..................................................................... 12 Total (all out, 47 overs) ................................. 125 Bowling: Cadd 9.0 0 23 3 0 1; Bird 4.0 1 13 0 0 0; Caudwell 7.0 2 19 1 1 0; Wooley 15.0 9 28 3 1 0; Moonsamy 8.0 1 28 1 2 0; Peters 4.0 0 12 2 3 0