Rochdale reply undermined by Bowden’s spin

ROCHDALE started their JW Lees Lancashire League Division 1 campaign last weekend with a trip to Darwen.

Unfortunately they were unable to make it a winning start to the season, though they returned home with three points from the Easter Sunday clash.

The visitors won the toss and elected to field first, a decision which looked favourable when home opener Scott Friend was dismissed lbw without scoring as Casey Roche claimed the first of his five wickets, 0-1.

Steve Oddy then accounted for the wicket of Friend’s brother Mark with the score on 16, also falling lbw and when Reece Davies followed suit, caught by Mohammad Khan off Roche, the home side were 24-3 and looking unsteady.

Rochdale continued to chip away and pick up cheap wickets – Jordan Clarke (2), David Bowden (2), Josh Cordingley (9) and Kamran Anwar (0) all giving way to leave the hosts wobbling on 65-7.

However, Roshan Silva was ticking along nicely and just needed someone to stick around – in Neil Cordingley he found a suitable ally. They put on 99 for the eighth wicket, Cordingley eventually bowled by Roche having hit 50 runs.

Silva finished on 79, the last wicket to fall, caught by Jack Duffy of a Syed Boishari delivery as the

Darwen inning closed on 167 all out.

Rochdale’s reply was undermined by the excellent left-arm spin of David Bowden, who notched up a career-best 6-13 to decimate the visitors’ batting.

In fairness, the visitors at one stage looked in a strong position. Though opening batsman James Maurice-scott fell victim to Bowden without scoring, Khan and Boishari took the score to 59 before the latter became Bowden’s second wicket of the day. Andrew Dawson fell without scoring and while Ali Muzaffar (14) stuck around briefly, Rochdale were unable to offer the kind of support to Khan that Silva had been afforded in Darwen’s knock.

From 91-4 when Muzaffar fell, the visitors crumbled to 118 all out in the 41st over.

Rochdale have their first home game of the season to look forward to tomorrow when Clitheroe ar the visitors.