Incredible last-wicket stand sees seconds home against Mobberley

RUNCORN Cricket Club’s second XI finished off the season in style with a good win over rivals Mobberley at Moughland Lane.

Mobberley batted first on a decent wicket. It was left to the two Drury brothers Matt and Tom to get the allimportant breakthroughs.

First it was older brother Matt who claimed the wicket of opener Mohammad Alam for 23. Then Tom saw off Ali Saeed when he had him trapped lbw for 20.

Matt Drury claimed two more wickets as did U15 junior player George Bushell who concluded a fine season with the team.

Veteran Lionel Job claimed the final wicket as Mobberley were restricted to just 127 off 42 overs. Matt Drury was the pick of the Runcorn bowlers taking 3-31 off his 11 overs of work.

Runcorn in reply made heavy weather of what should have been an easy target.

Opener Mark Cahill had been drafted in at the very last minute, and was disappointed to only score 10 before he was caught by Saeed off an Andrew Manning ball.

The next three Runcorn batsman all arrived and departed quickly, and what looked like a comfortable target was now anything but.

The only batsman to put up any resistance was Andy Scowcroft, but he lost his wicket having dug in for 19.

The game was looking to be slipping away when Runcorn were still 51 runs short when the last batsman came in.

It was left to Matt Drury and Job to try and conjure up some kind of fightback.

With the combination of some excellent stone-walling by Job and intelligent, patient batting by Drury, Runcorn were able to put on the 51 required for the final wicket and win the match and finish the season in style. Job was unbeaten on 10 and Drury unbowed on 41 at the end.

Coupled with his three wickets it was a man-of-thematch performance from Matt Drury and a great way to end the season at Runcorn.

The win saw Runcorn’s second string finish the 2018 season in mid-table sixth place in the Cheshire Cricket League Division A.

This really is a good performance when you consider how many secondteam players have had to step up to the first XI to help them out in the last few weeks, and the seconds have had to rely on more and more junior players.

Special mention must go to the likes of Tom Drury, George Bushell, Joe Barlow, Zak Judge and Luke Williams and others who have stepped up and contributed to the secondteam this season. ● Indoor training is continuing during the winter and details can be found on the Runcorn Cricket Club Facebook page.