Home  News and Match Reports Salfords Win Thriller at Netherne
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Salfords Win Thriller at Netherne |
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Salfords travelled to a sunny Netherne and came away victorious with a tense 1 wicket win.
Nethernes captain Mike Rodger won the toss and elected to bat first. As last week the salfords opening bowling attack was a force to be reckoned with as Atkinson and Steward bowled beautifly. They both bowled 7 overs each and were very unlucky to see just one wicket fall to Steward with the score 35-1. The change bowling of Luke Edmonds and Ryan Eaton continued the stranglehold on the netherne batsman. Eaton 1-38 was producing late swing with his left arm bowling and this accounted for batsman 2 for 36 as a great ball swung in to take leg stump. Edmonds was next in on the act as he forced a top edge from an attempted pull shot which went straight up in the air which enabled Keeper Paul Ballam a chance for a catch which he duly accepted. Edmonds bowled a brilliant spell of 13 consectutive overs taking 1-34. After 30 overs Netherne were 87-3. Batsman 4 and 5 decided shots had to be played but just as they started to cut loose reaching 31 and 26 respectivley both were dismissed by stunning catches the first by skipper Rob Besley diving full length on the boundary edge of the bowling of Palmer 1-18 and then Palmer himself taking a brilliant running catch over his shoulder. This left the home side 144-5. The return of the opening bowlers saw Steward 4-34 and Atkinson 2-44 take a further 4 wkts as Netherne finished 177-9 from their full allocation of 48 overs. Salfords bowling and fielding was top notch throughout the afternoon. The salfords batsman were confident of chasing down the total and even more so as Ricky Kidd 24 and Nathan Beaver lauched an all out assault on the Netherne attack and raced to 54 off 7 overs before kidd fell. Besley was unlucky to be caught down the legside for 11 and Edmonds looked good for 18 before being bowled but Beaver soon passed 50 for the first time for salfords first eleven and the score was 96-3. Salfords then lost Beaver for 88 and Van Renen both LBW but with plenty of batting to come a score of 150-5 with 25 overs to go only a salfords win was possible. But then some unexplained jitters set in and the next 4 batsman fell only adding 5 runs putting netherne suddenly in pole posistion with salfords wobbling at 167-9. With Stockton 5-20 bowling well it looked like netherne would snatch victory but Tony Palmer 21 not out smashed 2 boundaries. At 176-9 number 11 Ballam faced stockton and after blocking the first 4 deliveries clipped a full toss of his legs through mid wicket for the winning runs. Salfords clearly deserved the victory but they made it very difficult for themselves in the end. |
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