Young Boro on a difficult run
LITTLEBOROUGH’S poor run of form continued at the hands of Middleton at a warm Hare Hill on Saturday.
Tom Kaber won the toss and had no hesitation on deciding to bat on a wicket that looked better than it was in the end.
Littleborough coasted to 21 with out loss when Matthew Hernon chipped Rutter to Shahid at mid off.
Kaber joined Joe SmithButler at the wicket before a mix up left the professional stranded and he was run out for 7.
Worse was to follow for the home side when Ryan Miskella (hooking), Tom Pye (feather behind) and Gary Nash (chipped to mid wicket) all got themselves out for single figures albeit Middleton pro Williams bowled an excellent spell and finished with excellent figures of 3-30 off 15 very accurate overs.
Smith Butler top scored with 44 but the home side were all out for 105 with more than six overs left which was disappointing.
The home side needed to bowl well if they were going to turn this round and they got off to a great start when Smith-Butler had Harry Gee caught behind with the score on eight before a turning point that could have altered the outcome of the game.
A fantastic diving stop from Pye left James Tierney – who went on to top score with 28 – stranded in the middle before he had scored but a wayward throw resulted in the batsman getting back and bowler Lewis Willman limping out of the attack.
Miskella finally bagged Tierney for 28 before a poor spell of bowling from Miskella and Kaber gifted the visitors 36 runs without breaking sweat.
What happened next highlighted this as Kaber ripped through the middle order and took four wickets leaving Middleton on 104-6.
They eventually got home by four wickets but if this young Boro side had concentrated a bit more on their bowling and fielding and a little less in verbally engaging with batsmen then when added to their failure to not bat the full 50 overs this result could have a whole lot different.
This correspondent has come across quite a few people who have been gloating over Littleborough’s demise of late but I shall be seeing each and every one of them when this young Littleborough side get back on their feet again.
I, for one shall be supporting them all the way.