Too many ducks fly in as Widnes are beaten
WIDNES Cricket Club’s first XI suffered their first defeat of the season at Oulton Park on Saturday in the Vivio Cheshire County League First Division by the substantial margin of 102 runs.
Once again, Widnes captain Chris Kirby called the coin flip correctly and favouring a run chase asked Park to bat.
Widnes opened the bowling with new recruit Aqib Nawaz partnering Danny Moore. Martin East made 16 of the 18-run opening partnership for Park before being caught behind by Kirby off Moore.
Callum Begg joined Danny Leech and they took the score on to 71 before the former Cheshire opener Leech was bowled by Fayaz Ughradar for 30.
Begg was next to go, bowled for 35, giving Moore his second wicket.
Park skipper Patrick Roberts and Matt Jamieson took the score on to 130 before the latter was stumped by Kirby for 22, the first of four wickets for South African Marcus Fourie.
The fifth wicket added 47 and was broken when Andrew Mills was run out for 32. Nine runs later, Craig Douglas was caught at cover by Ben Hewitt off Fourie for three.
On 191, Roberts was bowled by Danny Naughton for the top Park score of 46. Without further addition Fourie accounted for Ben Gibbon, caught by Gareth Yandell.
In the 49th over, Naughton trapped Muhammad Kashif lbw for 11 and with the first ball of the 50th and final over Fourie took his fourth wicket, Matt Parkinson giving Kirby a second stumping.
Park were 205 all out, not a too daunting target on such a small ground, Widnes may well have thought.
However, Widnes made the worst possible start to their run chase when Matty Burns was run out in the first over for no score.
In the fifth over, Ughradar was caught by Jamieson at slip off Parkinson for five and Widnes were now 14-2.
Fourie and Alex Hewitt took the score on to 42, at which point Andrew Hards trapped Hewitt lbw for 16.
Two balls later Hards bowled Sean Moore for a duck, and when Naughton was caught behind without scoring, Widnes were really struggling at 44-5.
Fourie and Ben Hewitt then gave the visitors hope with a partnership of 52 for the sixth wicket.
Fourie eventually departed, caught by Jamieson off East for 43.
But 96-6 rapidly became 103 all out, the final four wickets falling without the addition of a single run.
The bare facts showed that six Widnes batsmen had failed to score a run.
The loss, which saw Widnes take just four points, saw them drop down to third place. This Saturday they face bottom of the table Weaverham at Beaconsfield Road. Prior to that they visit Grappenhall tonight in the League T/20 competition.
Widnes seconds suffered a similar drubbing by Oulton Park seconds.
They were restricted to 149-8 in their 50 overs with Tim Wearden making 30 and Daniel Wearden and Tom Evans both chipping in with 27. Park took just 25.3 overs to reach 150 for victory for the loss of just one wicket, Ben Kettle making and unbeaten 86.
This Saturday the seconds are on their travels to Grappenhall.
On Sunday, Widnes host Cheshire U12s’ match against Yorkshire U12s. The game commences at 12pm. ●