Rochdale nous sees Boro fall
WHEN this young Littleborough side develop a bit of cricket nous, become a little more cricket savvy and turn their youth into aggression and a little more noisy competitiveness then they will start to turn regular narrow defeats into wins.
Yet again they let another game drift, body language was poor, arms were being waived and worst of all the silence was deafening when a big local derby game against Rochdale was there for the taking.
Make no mistake about it, there is nothing between these teams on paper. Chapman apart there isn’t one outstanding amateur on either side but the one thing Rochdale do have is four or five more years experience than the home side.
Littleborough batted first on a glorious sunny day at Hare Hill and accumulated a competitive 182 but should have gone on to get 200 plus with the solid base that was laid by the openers.
To be fair, skipper Clinton Perren shuffled his pack with one eye on next year but in hindsight if he had appeared for the last 10 overs then a score of over 200 would have surely been secured.
Openers Pye and Hernon got the home side off to a solid yet unspectacular start.
They took the sore to 33-0 off 10 and then on to 87-0 at the half way stage with Hernon on 40 and Pye on 31.
The first wicket to fall was that of Pye (31) lbw to the tireless Chapman for a deserved breakthrough, next ball Ryan Burl was trapped plumb in front and the whole Rochdale team looked on in dismay as the umpire failed to raise the finger.
At the other end watching on was young Hernon and he finally brought up his maiden first team 50 with the score on 98-1 off 30 overs.
Hernon finally fell for an excellent 58 off 99 balls which included six fours.
This brought Miskella in and he watched on in horror as he straight drove Cooper who helped the ball onto the wickets to leave Burl run out for a round dozen.
With 10 overs left the home side were on 139-3 with Miskella and Nash at the crease.
This is were Littleborough need to learn and ensure that they score off every single ball in the last 10 overs especially with wickets in the tent.
Nash then went for a suicidal run and that left the score on 144-4. Miskella did his best to hold the innings together and hit a couple of sixes along the way before he fell for a gutsy 43 off 57 balls.
The innings seemed to peter out and the home side finished on 182/8 when really they should have been on the other side of 200 especially with the excellent start given by Hernon and Nash.
The visitors go off steady start before Knight castled Jack Avery with the score on 15.
Nine runs later a major turning point happened when Knight bounced Chapman and looked on in horror as Nash turned an absolute sitter of a catch into a complete horror show as both Miskella and skipper Perren both simultaneously through their caps into the ground in disgust.
To be fair to Nash his second attempt at the same catch was not as bad as his first which was not difficult.
And boy did Chapman make the hapless Nash and the bowlers pay as he proceeded to smash the ball to all parts of a sun drenched Hare Hill.
They raced to 100-3 at the halfway stage with Chapman sitting pretty on 59.
In the mean time Bentley had sent back the vistors pro for 20 and Dawson for a duck. This brought Aughey to the crease and it was his excellently compiled 46 that ultimately got the visitors home.
Miskella removed Chapman for an excellent 68 courtesy of a well judged catch in the deep by Whatmough.
Makin and the hapless Faulkner fell in quick succession to give the home side an outside chance but Avery smashed two big sixes to get the visitors home as the home side are left to rue the fact that yet again they let a game drift and only seemed up for it when it was too late in the day.
On Sunday, Littleborough had Stayley on the ropes at 73-5 off 21 overs when the rain came Miskella (2) and Wilman (3) were the wicket takers. Match ended in a draw.