Maghull fall victim to Hightown’s first win of the season

MAGHULL slipped to their second defeat in as many weeks to Hightown last weekend.

Paul Walters won the toss and decided to bat first at Old Hall Field, and his decision looked vindicated as he and partner Jon Ring reached 46 without loss.

Ring’s dismissal induced a middle-order collapse, however, and Maghull lost a further five wickets for just 15 runs, finding themselves 61-6 by the time Josh Mahoney departed back to the pavilion for 8.

Gregory Gillespie (27) and wicket-keeper Paul McKenna (30) steadied the ship late on with a gutsy partnership of 44, with Declan Devine’s 17 helping the hosts to 147 all out inside 34 overs.

That total proved to be disastrously short of a par score.

Jayden Schadendorf and Arslan Dar put on 91 for the first wicket, with the latter hitting a top-score of 76 from 107 balls.

Mohammed Nawaz brought some respectability back to proceedings with two quick-fire wickets, but Muhammed Zeb and Sachin Sharma knocked off the remaining runs for a seven wicket victory.

The defeat will have hurt Walters with Hightown having previously failed to record a victory all season.

Maghull are now in sixth place after ten games played and will be hoping to push on towards the upper echelons in the second-half of the campaign.

Walters’ side have no fixture this weekend.