Bramhall top of the table after Macc win
THEIR shirts proudly bearing the logo of the 1000 Hearts for Harry charity that Bramhall Cricket Club is supporting in 2021, the 1st XI travelled to Macclesfield after racking up a close win at Bollington in the season’s opening fixture.
The Beavers won the toss and again elected to bowl on a wicket that looked dry and fairly true. Both opening bowlers found decent rhythm and kept the scoring rate low before Ashley West encouraged an edge through to Greg Dixon to see the hosts slip to 23-1, and this became 32-2 as Ollie Latter deservedly picked up a scalp of his own during a tidy 7 over spell.
The visitors then turned to spin, with an attack unusually composed of two slow left arm and one authentic leg spin bowlers. The hosts rallied somewhat, mixing attacking stroke play and some defence but were aided by some elementary fielding errors. Ryan Macciocchi then struck for 68-3 and the first of two poor running mix-ups saw Macclesfield drop further to 72-4 shortly afterwards.
Further limited home batting partnerships developed, but never really threatened to take the innings away from the fielding side as wickets regularly fell. In fact, the Beavers were to shell several more catchable chances in the remainder of the innings before the home side were finally bowled out for 190 in the 48th over. Had those catches been held, that total might have been closer to 150. Macciocchi returned the best figures with 3-39 from 12.3 overs.
After the break, Jack Clark and Dixon took to the crease and looked in good touch as they punished bad balls and some good balls to the boundary across the speedy outfield.
However, the introduction of the experienced John Birchall induced Clark to nick behind for 20 at 38-1 and Dixon fell in the same fashion for a good looking 42 to leave the Beavers at 70-2. At the other end, number three Rhys Mallard was overcoming a scratchy start to his innings to put together some more convincing strokes in a good contest against seamer Turner.
Mallard and captain Nick Cantello had confidently added 61 for the 3rd wicket before the former was caught behind for 43 off a short & wide Turner delivery. Cantello progressed comfortably to bring his side within touching distance of their target before the returning Birchall castled him for a match-high 48 with the score at 176-4.
The away side lost one more wicket before surpassing Macclesfield’s total in the 42nd over to win by 5 wickets and now sit top of the division before returning to home turf to host Warrington on Saturday for a noon start.