4th XI struggle again at home

Timperley won the toss elected to bat as conditions promised rain and perhaps the ball would get difficult to use if it did. Unfortunately the weather stayed fair and in helpful humid conditions, seamers Clinch & Bruce got plenty of swing to make scoring difficult. Both will bowl worse spells this season & take wickets. Fisher & Carr battled through to take the opening stand to 67 off 18 overs before Carr (24) was out Lbw to the newly introduced Seal and Fisher (34) followed soon thereafter, caught at slip off Seal.

Umar (3) was then bowled by Heath and the middle order tried to ride the storm by batting defensively to regain the initiative later. Unfortunately the Woodford spinners continued their accurate spells and drew assistance from the pitch to ultimately constrain the Timperley innings to 145 for 7 off their allocation. Only Hussain (36) batted with any real fluency in the Timperley innings. The best of the Woodford bowling was provided by Seal (3 for 21) and Heath (3 for 42).

Timperley knew that their inning was under-egged and that they would need to bowl well and have a little luck to push Woodford. Unfortunately both openers settled to task and took the score to 90 before being separated. Hussain (57) scarcely missed a loose ball and put Woodford well ahead of the clock before being well held at deep cover by Bhuvan off the newly introduced Bilal. Bilal then bowled a peach of a ball to remove Anderson (34) and a slight opportunity manifested itself. Waseem then ran Seal out with a direct hit at the bowlers end to make it 111 for 3 and who knows…

Unfortunately Abdullah had received instructions to ‘get on with it’ from his captain (in expectation of rain) and consequently he clubbed 43 not out off 21 balls (including 5 sixes) to win the game comfortably in little over 23 overs. Hussain 2 for 16. Muzzafar bowled well to only go for 22 off 6.3 overs but with no reward.

Even with a better pace to Timperleys innings it is unlikely that we would have posted enough to force a victory so back to the drawing board. Next week, away to North east Cheshire…fingers crossed.