Thirds outdone by finest of margins
MACCLESFIELD THIRD XI BY ROB BURNS
NORTHWICH captain Anil Meesala won the toss and elected to field with Ian Kenny and Leo Burns opening for Macclesfield.
The batsmen started well against the Northwich attack putting on 61 before Burns fell for a well made 31 bringing captain Chris Flint to the crease.
Flint accelerated the scoring before falling for 26, Adam Sainter was out cheaply before a good partnership of 40 between Kenny and Andy Moores.
Kenny was out to the enthusiastic Muhammad Iqbal for an excellent 66 leaving Moores and Pete Grindrod to continue the innings.
Grindrod fell for 8 before young Ben Farmer joined Moores and looked to score quickly, Moores fell for a dominant 44 from 46 balls leaving Farmer to crash to 28 from just 12 balls!
Macclesfield finished on 215 for 7 from their 40 overs, a well constructed innings resulting in a defendable total.
Ollie Jennings and Farmer started the Macclesfield attack with Jennings bowling
Northwich opener Dave Ellis in the first over.
Both bowlers bowled good economic spells without further reward.
Miles Horner and Charlie Ackerley continued the attack with both having early success, (3 wickets for Horner & 2 for Ackerley) Northwich looked in trouble on 67 for 6.
Unfortunately for Macc, Northwich then looked to either live or die and a fantastic partnership of 90 from the ever enthusiastic Iqbal and Connor Minton swung the pendulum in Northwich’s favour.
Jennings took the important wicket of Minton but with the scores level going into the final over the result now looked inevitable and despite 4 dot balls from the clear headed Tony Moores, Northwich hit the winning runs off the penultimate ball finishing on 219 for 8 from 39.5 overs resulting in 15 points for Northwich and 5 for Macclesfield.
The game was played in good spirits and fine margins made the difference on the day, good performances from all.
Next week we host Knutsford and look to end the season strongly.