Marple endure an afternoon to forget
MARPLE will fervently hope that Saturday’s comprehensive home defeat to a confident Nantwich side was the nadir of the 2015 season.
It is hard to imagine a day when anything further could have gone wrong from a cricketing point of view, despite Mark Bennett winning the toss and electing to bat on a seemingly good surface at Bowden Lane.
The Nantwich opening attack of Jimmy Warrington and Adam Sydall would appear amongst the most potent in the Premier League in 2015.
On Saturday, whilst left arm seamer Sydall was below par, with a series of no balls and variable line and length, his partner Warrington was right on target from ball one.
The former Cheshire opening bowler is still young, and looked in prime form. Stand-in opener for Marple, George Pearson, was determined to get into line and battle, but he must have been aware that Warrington was bowling a “heavy” delivery.
Runs were hard to come by, and this looked to be a day when the batsmen had to carefully try and see off the new ball, giving the attack full respect.
The modern way, however, is to try and dominate quickly.
This tactic was fraught with danger against a hostile and accurate Warrington. Makin, Morgan and Young were soon all back in the pavilion, comprehensibly bowled as Pearson watched in horror from the non striker’s end.
Marple skipper Bennett joined Pearson, but Sydall’s waywardness was to be of no help to Marple.
Nantwich captain Ray Doyle removed him from the attack and introduced the miserly left armer Griffiths instead.
Here is a bowler who is not really a slow left arm spinner, but more a left arm medium pace bowler.
He has remarkable accuracy, and immediately settled into a spell of bowling which had all the Marple batsmen in a state of complete uncertainly.
It is worth recording that in his final figures of 15 overs 10 maidens 4-15, there were only six deliveries out of the ninety that were scored from.
When Warrington was rested, former IPL all rounder Abishek Raut got his spinning fingers warmed up after a couple of overs to provide useful support to Griffiths. The Marple middle order, Paul Wood (24) excepted, could not get the ball off the square, and when Warrington returned, he quickly cleaned up the tail to finish with 5-30 from 13.2 overs.
A sorry tale of woe for Marple ended 78 all out.
The top order lacked application, but not ability, and all will have been disappointed to be dismissed so quickly, admittedly by a quality attack.
Bennett may have been unlucky, but Paul Wood was the only home batsman who looked to be in any sort of touch, and he was stumped when deceived by Griffith’s dangerous quicker delivery.
The Nantwich response proceeded serenely to the small target. Sam Harbinson was treated harshly, once more finding the pitch too sluggish.
Spinners Greasley and Eliot Young both bowled tidily, but after Young had removed Simpson lbw, Lancashire starlet Liam Livingstone was brutal.
He lofted Greasley for four and six, and then took 18 from a Harbinson over when the Marple paceman was reintroduced.
Possibly the best moment of the day for the home side came when Greg Marsland bowled his first delivery in first team cricket to Livingstone.
Livingstone (33) had made his T20 debut for Lancashire the previous evening, but carved his first ball from Marsland to cover where Pearson took a fine catch. This was a memorable wicket for the uncomplaining Marple seamer. Young then deceived Brown (24) to bowl him at 73-3 to give Marple a solitary point from the game. Young’s short spell of accurate left arm spin was a high point for Marple on a day they will quickly want to forget as a seven-wicket victory for Nantwich came up in only 18th over.
Saturday sees a highlight for the Marple fans with a visit to Neston’s beautiful ground on the Wirral, a 12.30pm start.