Captain Kural is man of the match

Audlem 2nd XI travelled to the picturesque village ground of Rostherne on a beautiful, sunny, cool, early spring day. What transpired was a thrilling match that ebbed and flowed with Audlem finally coming away with a one-wicket victory. Skipper Tom Kural was the man of the match, starring with both bat and ball.

Rostherne's 1st XI skipper Tom Crome won the toss and opted to bat first on a wicket that appeared good for batting. Crome immediately rued his decision as he was dismissed to the first ball of the game to a beauty from Ron Farnell.

It soon materialised that it was a far from easy wicket to bat on. It was slow with uneven bounce and the odd ball kept alarmingly low. Tony Rowland joined Naz Farooq at the crease and staged a mini-recovery. Kural was bowling a hostile spell from the other end and dismissed Rowland caught by Paddy Leese behind the stumps to leave the home team on 30 for 2.

New batsman Alex Etherington and Farooq rallied the home side with some excellent shots before Farooq became Kural's second victim for a well-made 30. This left Rostherne on 51 for 3, but after that, they collapsed.

Etherington was the only batsman to offer any resistance scoring 33: every other batsman was out for a duck! Rostherne were dismissed for 76. The main destroyers for Audlem were Kural who took 3 for 18 and Roy Wild 3 for 27. There was a wicket each for Farnell and Dave Parry.

Audlem had a disastrous start to their reply with Zar Ahmed and the Banfield brothers, Will and Ollie, back in the pavilion with only three runs on the board. Opening bowlers Rowland and Farooq were wreaking havoc. Kural and Farnell steadied the ship and took the score to 29, when Farnell was dismissed for 10.

When Leese followed two runs later, Audlem were 31 for 5 and in desperate straits. Kural was fighting a lone battle. He had some close calls initially as he was dropped a few times. However, he lived to fight another day. Unfortunately, neither Paul Thorburn nor Steve Elsmore could stay with him and suddenly it was 39 for 7 and a certain victory for the home side loomed.

However, the bad news for Rostherne was that Kural was still at the crease. The even worse news for them was that after his dodgy start, he had settled and was starting to play superbly. In a masterful display, Kural shepherded the strike and protected the tail-enders as much as possible. In between some solid defence, he played some cracking shots to keep the scoreboard ticking. Parry stayed with Kural until, with the score on 54, he holed out to cover for 4.

John Wainwright played a dead bat while another thirteen runs were added and then got an unplayable delivery that kept low. Wild walked out to the crease with a further nine runs still needed. However, crucially, Kural was still there. He took as much of the strike as possible and Wild staunchly defended any remaining deliveries that he had to face.

The target inched closer. Kural smashed a vital boundary through mid-wicket. Eventually, after a few nail-biting overs, it was all over and Kural smashed the winning runs to finish on 44 not out with Audlem on 77 for 9. Rowland, Farooq and Crome all took three wickets for Rostherne.

It had been a magnificent game of cricket, with thirteen batsmen not troubling the scorer and a wonderful all round performance from Kural. Audlem gained 25 points to stay fourth and Rostherne 7.

On Saturday the 2nd XI welcome Division 4 leaders Wilmslow 2nd XI to the Gorse Croft. The match starts at 1.30 pm.

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