Batting performance must improve for visit to Chester

of the neck bringing up his 50 in 75 balls including six fours. With the score on 117 Evans dismissed Williams for 51 and Widnes felt that they were taking charge.

Only Chris Hacket got into double figures in the lower order and last man Matt Stewart was run out of the last ball of the allotted 45 overs.

Evans picked up four wickets for 36 runs.

159 seemed a very gettable target and despite an inexperienced batting order Widnes were confident of successfully chasing down this target.

Kirby and James McCoy opened the innings and had to face some quick bowling from Ashley Davis bowling down the hill from the church end.

However it was Donelan who made the breakthrough by having McCoy caught by Camden for seven.

This brought Matty Burns to the crease and sensible batting by both him and

Kirby saw the scoreboard ticking over with Burns in particular demonstrating drives all round the wicket.

With the score on 92 Burns became Donelan’s second victim by LBW.

Luke McCoy departed without scoring, getting a leading edge to provide a caught and bowled to Davis.

Widnes needed Kirby to hold the innings together however he was next out after a patient 42.

Much now depended on McCurdy and Majeed as the required run rate increased to above five per over.

Neston sensed they now had the momentum and McCurdy, Majeed and Soni all departed without reaching double figures between them.

With the score on 120 for seven, Ben Hewitt and Qamar Hafiz looked to score some boundaries as Widnes were behind the required run rate.

However Hewitt had his off stump cartwheeling off Stewart for 10 and Hafiz was caught on the boundary for 1.

All now rested on Evans and Parkinson.

Despite Evans playing some nice drives, Parkinson was last out caught on the edge of the bowling of Stewart.

With 2.1 overs unused Widnes were disappointed to finish on only 135.

For the second week running the Widnes batting line up did not produce the weight of runs required.

They face a massive challenge next Saturday when they face top side,

Chester Boughton Hall away.

Captain Evans will be hoping to see an improvement with the batting on what is usually a good batting wicket.