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2nd XI lose ground with a draw against Trinity

1st August 2009 @ 11:11am – by Zar Ahmed
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Audlem 2nds lost ground to the leaders of the Cheshire Cricket Alliance Division 5 by only drawing at home to Trinity 2nds last Saturday.

It was a cloudy day at the Gorse Croft and the wicket was slow and wet after all the heavy recent rainfall. Trinity won the toss and elected to bat first.

Paul Ratcliffe took two early wickets to reduce Trinity to 34-2. Roy Wild was surprisingly held back up to this point and was introduced at the fall of the second wicket. He made up for lost time, however, and chipped away with regular wickets. None of the Trinity batsmen were able to get him away and slowly but surely, Audlem whittled their through the Trinity batting line-up.

With the score at 147-8 off 40 overs, things were looking very good for Audlem. Two very young batsmen were at the crease and the score was very much gettable. At this point, Audlem eased up and let the game completely slip out of their hands. Instead of sticking with the experience of Ratcliffe and Wild, who were giving nothing to the batsmen, skipper Toby Banfield bought on the younger Audlem bowlers.

Unfortunately, the gamble backfired on this occasion. Quite simply, Audlem bowled far too many bad balls. A couple of catches may have been dropped, but even these were off poor balls. Trinity were also eating up valuable overs and finished at 196 for 8 off their maximum 48 overs.

Toby and Olly Banfield set about attaining Audlem's target of 197 from 42 overs, but this became even more difficult when Toby was bowled in the first over. Phil Backes followed very quickly to leave the scoreboard showing 10 for 2. At this point, the immediate priority became saving the game rather then winning it. Zar and Olly Banfield managed to settle things down in this regard and took the score to 43 before Zar was out for 20. However, this partnership also ensured that the game could not be won as both Zar and Olly played anchor roles when the need was there for someone to push the score along.

On Zar's dismissal Paul Thorburn came to the crease and immediately started to push the scoring rate up. He scored a highly entertaining and enterprising 43, including six fours and one six. After he was dismissed, Paul Ratcliffe carried on the attack and struck three huge sixes in a quick-fire 27. Unfortunately he was caught on the boundary edge as he bravely attempted another big hit on the last ball of the game trying to get an extra batting point for reaching 150. The innings ended on 146 for 4. Olly Banfield remained unbeaten on a gutsy 32 having batted for the full innings.

Trinity gained 12 points and Audlem 7 to remain third place. This afternoon the 2nd XI travel to mid-table Holmes Chapel.


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