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Salfords arrived at Netherne on a bright afternoon but were surprised to see how damp the wicket was. After winning the toss captain Rob Besley had no hesitation in asking the home side to bat first.
This looked a good decision as opening bowlers Brett Atkinson 2-37 and Tony Palmer 2-33 made early inroads and left netherne 28-3 from 14 overs. Niroshan Kahawatte 3-38 came into the attack and took 2 quick wickets both caught at short mid wicket by Martin Stone the score now 61-5. A good partnership of 66 between S Bastable and vallance frustated the visitors before Besley 2-36 made the breakthrough. The tail wagged for netherne as they added another 66 runs closing their innings on 192-9 from a maximum 48 overs. This left salfords 42 overs to chase down the score which they were confident of doing. However the pitch from one end in particular was producing some uneven bounce and opening Netherne bowler M Rodger 5-24 was exploting this to good effect. One spot he kept finding sent the ball shooting along the floor and this accounted for 4 batsman three of which were LBW to balls no higher than the ankles. At 16-4 salfords were in big trouble. Salfords captain Besley was watching this from the other end and decided at an early stage that a draw was now the only result possible and dug in and frustrated the home side with a resilliant 64 Not Out. He received good support from Steward (7) and Atkinson (18) and then Palmer 24 not out to leave salfords on 132-6 from 42 overs. This Losing draw keeps salfords above Netherne in the table and continues the clubs good form away from home which has seen them lose just once away all season. |
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