Win double for
THE Macclesfield 1st XI opened their Twenty20 Cup campaign on Thursday as they welcomed local rivals Bollington on a beautiful summer evening. Captain Rob Porter won the toss and elected to field first.
The visitors got off to a quick start through their captain Richard Hough and Caleb Ziebell before former Bollington duo Jack Ward and James Cross combined to dismiss Hough for 12.
Ward struck again next ball as he bowled Dickin
son and left early pressure on the away side.
Not to be outdone, Craig Melrose took the wicket of Barrass leaving Bollington on 25-3 and seemingly in trouble.
However James Longhorn joined Ziebell at the crease and the pair batted well to keep the scoreboard ticking whilst scoring the boundaries where they could.
As Ziebell neared his half century the pair really started to push on, scoring a number of boundaries.
The changes in the bowling attack struggled to make an impact against the high scoring partnership.
Longhorn batted sensibly around Ziebell as he passed the 100 mark to finish on a magnificent 119 not out, off just 59 deliveries).
A final wicket for Jack Ward on the last ball of the innings dismissed Longhorn for 33 and meant that the visitors posted a decent looking 184-4 off their 20 overs.
In reply Macclesfield opened with Galeotti and Porter and looked to make indents into the decent 1st innings total. The opening stand of 42 was broken when Porter was dismissed to an LBW decision off Ziebell which brought Khalid Sawas to the crease.
Sawas, initially struggling to find the gaps batted well alongside Galeotti before the later was run out just 1 run short of his half century.
Birchall joined Sawas at the crease and after hitting one big 6, tried the same again and was caught on the dep mid off boundary. James Cross came and went for 2 runs to bring in Craig Melrose and when Sawas passed the 50 mark Macclesfield required 50 runs in 4 overs.
Regular finding of the boundary kept the game in the balance and took the home side to 16 off 7 deliveries required.
A turning point however was when Sawas hit the final ball of the penultimate over for 6 leaving 10 runs to win. Sawas took Macclesfield safely home with a single ball to spare by hitting a final maximum towards the entertained spectators to finish 86 not out, supported well by Melrose (22 not out).
A superb game played in a fine spirit.
Just days after the midweek cup game, the Macclesfield 1st XI were home again, this time in the league to welcome promoted side Brooklands. Captain Rob Porter made it 4 in a row to correctly call the toss and invited the visitors to bat.
Bagshaw and Cunliffe started positively scoring a number of boundaries in a handful of overs before Craig Melrose had Bagshaw caught for 11.
Other opening bowler Jack Ward followed up the work of Melrose as he took the wicket of Cunliffe in the next over.
At 35- 2 Brooklands looked to rebuild the innings but pressure in the field and quality of bowling made things difficult for the visitors.
Regular wickets fell, all to man of the match Craig Melrose as he picked up a further 4 taking the score to 59-6.
After the drinks interval 1st XI league debutant, 15 year old Jack Massey replaced Ward and continued to keep things tight. Massey soon struck to dismiss Hugall and the set batsmen AJ Hart appeared to be running out of partners.
A further two wickets for Massey brought in number 11 Rob Leach at 82-9 to join Hart and try and