4th XI falter at home against Northwich

The start of the game saw cool overcast conditions which following midweek rain suggested it was time to bowl given the choice.

Northwich elected to bat and made hard weather of things early in their innings against some great bowling from Will & Waseem who kept the scoring rate under control. Waseem struck first, bowling Meesala (17) with an absolute peach of a ball that uprooted middle stump to make it 22 for 1. He followed this up with getting Prasannan (0) caught by Pushka to make it 23 for 2. Control continued and with Krishna bowling the labouring George (18) Timperley were well placed at 71 for 3 off 24 overs. Realising the need to press on the Northwich batsmen slowly regained the initiative aided by some dropped catches to score a hundred off the last 10 overs with all bowlers getting some tap. Ikalichan struck a rapid 50 before being well run out by Billy and was supported by Muringsparambil (43*) to allow Northwich to close on 201 off their allocation. Waseem was the pick of the Timperley bowling with 2 for 22 off 8.

200 on the back pitch was very gettable but once again the batting unit failed. A rapid start became 19 for 3 off 4 overs and it was rebuild time (again). Sohaib (30) & Gary (50) recovered the score to 96 for 3 at drinks and we were in with a sniff of pushing for the Northwich total. Unfortunately the hidden signal to start the wicket conveyor had started and the last 7 wickets were lost for a paltry 15 runs to leave the team 111 all out. Iqbal took 5 for 26 with his teasing spin that most batsmen were unable to deal with.

A really disappointing effort with the bat once again.