Widnes are unable to Sale away with a win
WIDNES were left somewhat bemused by the approach of visitors Sale in their Vivio Cheshire County League Division One game at Beaconsfield Road on Saturday.
Relegation-threatened Sale won the toss and asked Widnes to bat indicating they would be happy to chase whatever target was set. In reality quite the reverse happened. It was not Widnes’s best batting performance of the season but at the end of their allotted 50 overs they were pleasantly relieved to have posted a target of 207, thanks in no small measure to a ninth-wicket partnership of 55 between Ben Hewitt who made 31 and Danny Moore who contributed 22.
Danny Naughton opened the batting with Matty Burns and the latter was first to go, caught behind by Brooke Guest off Alisdair Barrowman for nine.
Marcus Fourie joined Naughton and the South African was more subdued than normal managing just 12 from the 35 balls he faced.
Off the final ball of left arm spinner Ben Watkin’s third over, Fourie hoisted a catch to Mat Spells fielding at mid-on.
Enter captain Chris Kirby only to quickly depart, bowled first ball by the off-spin of Jeremy McFarlane.
Fortunately for Widnes, Naughton was batting with much more assurance than of late and along with Sean Moore they took the score on to 98.
Moore, having made 20, then hit a long hop off Richard Adams straight into the hands of Greg Gyves at midwicket.
Naughton went past his half-century but having made 75 he swept a ball from McFarlane to Watkin at deep square leg.
Ben Hewitt joined his brother Alex but ● after the briefest of partnerships ran him out for nine.
When Ian Spencer missed a low full toss and was bowled by Richard Adams for seven, Widnes were 136-7.
Billy Webb looked secure enough but having made 10 ran himself out attempting a risky second run.
With the score on 150, Danny Moore joined Ben Hewitt and their excellent partnership saw the home side to maximum batting points before both were run out in the final over.
Widnes entrusted the new ball to Danny Moore and Ben Hewitt and the Sale opening batsmen Joe Cannon and Ben Watkin made a cautious start.
With 14 on the board, Hewitt bowled Watkin for five.
Cannon and Spells added a further 26 for the second wicket before the former departed, an lbw victim to Hewitt.
Sale were showing little interest in maintaining an adequate scoring rate and slowed down even further with the introduction of the spin of Fourie.
He eventually had Guest caught behind by Kirby having made 11 off 27 balls and three overs later bowled Ryan Burgess for seven.
Spells was joined by McFarlane and it soon became clear the visitors had settled for a draw.
Widnes skipper Kirby did all he could to tempt Sale into having a go, to the point of giving 10 members of his team a bowl.
He eventually took the pads off and bowled the penultimate over himself. Perhaps he should have done so earlier as with his fourth ball he had McFarlane stumped by Naughton for 29 off 66 balls.
Spells remained 81 not out off 135 balls as Sale settled for seven points, finishing on 167-5.
Widnes took 13 points and remain in third place.
This Saturday the Beaconsfield Road men travel to second-placed Davenham. ● WIDNES’S seconds host their counterparts from Davenham having got back to winning ways at Stockport last Saturday afternoon.
Batting first, the hosts made 207 all out with Tom Mitchell taking 4-41 and Mike Byrne 3-36.
In reply, Byrne (74) and Phil Catterall put on 135 for the first wicket. No further wickets were lost with Catterall finishing undefeated on 101 and Daniel Wearden hitting an unbeaten 22.