The Lawrence’s innings never really got going on a difficult wicket to bat on after the midweek rain, coupled with the fact that our opening bowlers (Amila Weththasinghe and Carl Sutcliffe) kept it tight right the way through and picked up regular wickets. The pair bowled that well that our skipper decided to keep them on as we used only two bowlers all afternoon. Imran Mirza top scored for the visitors with 30, but thanks to 4/71 and 3/64 from Weththasinghe and Sutcliffe respectively and two Amila run outs we managed to bowl DSL out for 150. 

Despite losing Dave Taylor early who did an excellent job for us with the keeping gloves on (catches and a run out of his own), Chris Holt and Amila managed to add a brisk 61 run partnership to take us to 75/2 with Holt falling for 20. It was like a library out in the field with all the DSL heads down and subdued. From this position of total dominance and pretty much cruising to all 5 points, our mid to lower order hit the self destruct button as Mirza got in on the act again, this time with his medium pace. We collapsed to 106/9 and all but blew any chance we had in the game.

However, just like at Denton the previous week our last pair (this time Matt Curphey and Gary Bond) failed to give up and began to construct some sort of partnership. The pair hit several boundaries and kept the scoreboard ticking over, with plenty of overs in hand. Unfortunately on 138 (partnership of 32) Curphey was beaten by a Mirza yorker and the game was over. Another valiant effort from our last pair as they once again demonstrated how to battle and fight for their wicket. Curphey finished on 18 and Bond unbeaten on 23. Mirza claimed figures of 5/40 for the visitors.

Scorecard to follow…

Our second eleven were involved in an identical game at DSL. The home side hit 144 as we fell from 70/2 to 116/9 and then lost our last wicket 20 runs shy of our target.

Next weekend we take on Prestwich at the SCG, with the third eleven playing a rearranged league fixture away at Dukinfield on the Sunday.