Big impact of slow bowlers
THE Greens 1st XI travelled to Oakmere on Saturday and on winning the toss skipper Josh Hampson elected to bat and opened the innings with himself and Paul Needham against the Oakmere attack of Matthew Howard and James Hodgkinson.
Both batsmen treated the bowling with respect but were quick to pounce on any loose deliveries as Hodgkinson was to find out and he was removed from the attack after only three overs having conceded 22 runs.
First change bowler, David Purcell, had immediate success as he bowled Hampson around his legs for 11, 40-1. On the same score Needham had an old fashioned heave ho and was caught by Howard for 21, 40-2.
In-form Dylan Heginbotham and partner Jack Needham kept the board ticking over with Needham in particular taking a liking to the bowling of Purcell, taking 17 from two overs including a huge six before he fell, caught behind by Daniel Faulkner for 21 off the bowling of Purcell, 67-3.
Peter Richards came and went without troubling the scorer, caught by Henry Young off the bowling of David Norton, 68-4. 2nd XI skipper Tom Littler added 62 runs in partnership with Heginbotham, taking some excellent singles and the former playing some exquisite extra cover drives before, unfortunately, being caught by Rick Lyons off the bowling of Hodgkinson who had been introduced back into the attack for 28, 130-5.
New batsman Brad Holme, in partnership with Heginbotham, took the score to 156 when, unfortunately, Heginbotham was run out for an invaluable 41.
The Green lost a further two wickets on the same total with the demise of Holme and Charles Hallas and the innings eventually closed on 167.
Pick of the Oakmere bowlers was David Purcell with 4-36.
Rick Lyons and Craig Phelan led the response against the Green’s opening attack of Jack Needham and Dylan Heginbotham and both batsmen appeared unruffled by the pace attack and took the score to 25 when Needham had Phelan smartly caught by Heginbotham for 19.
The introduction of the Green’s two slow bowlers, Mark Richards and George Ridings, had a dramatic effect on the outcome of the game as first Richards had the dangerous looking Lyons caught by Heginbotham for 26, 48-2.
In the same over removed Ciaran McDonald, again caught Heginbotham, for a duck, 48-3, then four overs later he had Hodgkinson caught by Needham for 7, 53-4, then in the following over Ridings trapped James Norton LBW for 1, 57-5.
Lewis Newall became Richards’ fourth victim when he was smartly caught by Hallas for 3, 60-6, Ridings then bowled
David Norton for 6, 73-7, Jack Needham was brought back into the attack and in his first over had Henry Young caught by Hampson off a steepler for a duck 79-8, in his final over Ridings had Purcell caught by Holme for 17, 82-9, Ridings was replaced with Peter Richards who with his first ball trapped Faulkner LBW and a final total of 94.
Pick of the Green’s bowlers were Mark Richards, 4-25, and George Ridings 3-11. The next game is on Saturday at home to league leaders Ashley, wickets pitched 1pm.
The Greens 2nd XI had a very close game with Lindow, winning by just 3 runs. The Green batted first and scored 228-7 with Lee Hallas 61 and Joe Butler 54 the main contributors.
On Thursday the 1st XI met Maritime in the last 16 of the T20 competition and the spectators were treated to a nail biter of a game.
Maritime batted first and scored 157-8 in their overs, the Green’s response started disastrously, losing five wickets for just 38 runs. Fortunately Dylan Heginbotham was in fine form and in partnership first with Tom Littler and then Sam Messih took the score to 150-8.
With two balls left, Charlie Hallas struck a 4 to win the game. Heginbotham closed on a truly magnificent 78 not out including seven fours and four maximums. The reward is a visit to Aston CC in the last eight.