Burns’ first ton caps a great day for Widnes
PLAYING with the confidence of champions, Widnes comfortably defeated Lindow by 85 runs last Saturday afternoon.
Prior to the game, the team led by captain Chris Kirby were presented with the Second Division championship trophy by the Vivio Cheshire County League chairman, David Humpage.
Kirby then called the coin flip correctly and elected to bat on a hard, if greenish wicket at Beaconsfield Road.
South African Marcus Fourie, in such excellent form of late, was promoted to open the batting with Matty Burns.
They could not have given their side a better start putting on 131 for the first wicket.
Both were scoring boundaries on either side of the wicket and the century partnership came up in just 20 overs with Burns reaching his maiden first XI half-century.
It came as a something of a surprise when Fourie was trapped lbw by the spin of Graham Clinton for 65, his innings featuring a dozen boundaries.
Alex Hewitt joined his fellow 19-yearold Burns at the crease, and there was no let-up in the scoring rate.
They took the score on to 225 at which point Burns was bowled by Ben Tyler having turned his maiden half-ton into a full three-figure score.
His most assured innings of 103 contained 14 fours and a six.
Hewitt, on 56 at the time, took his score on to 75 before, attempting to hit his fifth six, he was caught in the deep by Luke Unsworth off Tyler.
Widnes declared at this point with 252 on the board after 48 overs.
Lindow lost their first wicket in the first over without a run on the board as Danny Moore bowled Jake Martin.
With the score on 16, Ben Hewitt had Robert Venables caught behind by Kirby for 12.
Lindow had reached 39 when a piece of brilliant fielding by Ben Hewitt resulted in the run-out of opener Arpan Desai for 20.
Without a run added, Fourie bowled Scott Howarth first ball.
Ten runs later, further smart fielding, again by Ben Hewitt, saw the run-out of Ryan O’Brien for 14.
After seven wicketless overs from Fayaz Ughradar, Danny Moore returned to dismiss Unsworth and Ian Park to leave Lindow precariously placed on 77-7.
However, they fought back well with Patrick Chrystys with 30 and captain Tyler with 53 adding 86 for the eighth wicket, Tyler becoming a second lbw victim for Fourie.
Ben Hewitt returned to clean bowl Chrystys and with the final ball of the penultimate over he made it a hat-trick of run-outs to secure victory as Lindow were all out for 167.
Widnes travel to Christleton for their final game of this memorable season this Saturday.
Widnes’s second XI secured promotion with a two wicket victory at Lindow. They restricted the hosts to 128-5 from their 50 overs and then were in deep trouble at 50-5. Will Myers rescued matters with an outstanding undefeated 62 assisted by Owen Price with a valuable 11, the second highest score. They can also be promoted as champions if they defeat Christleton at Beaconsfield Road on Saturday.