Entertaining tie
Brendan Miskella
AN enthralling match ended in a tie on a busy Saturday afternoon at Hare Hill.
The game ebbed and flowed all afternoon and in the end a tie was probably a fair result.
At the start of play Littleborough were joint top with Crompton and Church were just seven points behind in third place.
Come Saturday night Church had cut the gap to five on the home side and Crompton had opened up a three-point gap at the top of the table.
Littleborough won the toss and had no hesitation in deciding to bat on what looked like an excellent batting surface.
Levi Wolfenden broke down after the first over of the match and would not bowl again.
He was replaced by Andrew Bentley, who along with visiting professional Sagar Trivedi made the home side work hard for their runs. Travis Townsend was bowled by his opposite number with the score on 8 with what looked to be a decent delivery.
Zac and Clinton Perren then both dug in, playing very well and had taken the score to 79, just before drinks when Zac needlessly chipped Bentley to the waiting Scully at cover.
Ryan Miskella came out to bat and it was obvious he was not fit to play after going over on his ankle in the ‘football warm up’ in what turned out to be a sprained ankle. He fell for one (85/3).
This brought Matthew Hernon, who is in the form of his life, to the crease to join his skipper in the middle. They took the score to 114 when Perren got a ‘shocker’ judged to have leg glanced behind when the ball had clearly hit his thigh pad.
Chris Schofield and Pye came and went to Mohammed Bhada for 4 and nought respectively.
Josh Unsworth batted positively before foolishly getting stumped for 11 and when Lewis Williamson was lbw for a duck to the returning Trivedi the home side were in a spot of real bother and had slumped to 148/8.
Watching all this at the other end was the in form Hernon. At last he found a willing partner in the underrated Lewis Willman as they put on a valuable 59 for the ninth wicket.
In doing so, Hernon passed 50 for the third time in his last four innings and he was finally out of the last ball of the innings for an excellent 76 off just 73 balls with two maximums and six boundaries.
The only downside was that he gifted the visitors two points by going for a maximum which in reality – brave though it may be – was not the correct choice of shot as Philip Gilrane held onto the catch in the deep and two points in the process as the home side finished on 215 all out.
Townsend and Wilman opened the bowling and after a cautious start the visitors openers Craig Fergusson and Josh Scully started to get on top of the attack and had taken the score to 49 when Fergusson edged Willman to Perren in the slips.
Wolfenden joined his opening partner and had taken the score to 106 before both fell without any addition to the score. Wolfenden was dismissed by Williamson care of a good catch by Perren in the slips and Scully fell to Hamza Ali care of a catch by Schofield. 106/3 game on.
Bhada fell for a fourteenball duck with the score on 130 and that brought Kelen Florentine to join
Trivedi in the middle.
After a slow start, Trivedi started to cut loose and took 14 off one Willman over. Trivedi fell to