East Lancs Paper Mill’s first team were welcomed atManchester Road by overcast conditions, and a weather forecast looking about asappealing as a weekend in Rhyl.
The visitors won the toss and chose to bat, with Sas beinggiven the new ball for the first time from the scoreboard end. After a steadyenough start of 25/0 from the first half dozen overs, it was a sharp piece offielding from Dan Jones that delivered the breakthrough; sliding at cover topick up one handed and into Owen’s gloves to take the bails with the openershort of his ground.
The visitors rebuilt nicely and were 79/1 after 18 overs,when the introduction of Dan Jones to replace Sas delivered the breakthroughfrom his 3rd ball, caught by his little brother at mid on. The overseas thencame to the crease on the back of his 150 odd a few games ago, but was put downon 2 off Keogh’s bowling, in a rare lapse from stand-in keeper Owen Hogben whoappears to catch better without gloves on.
It was then another sharp run out from Elliot Hogben toremove the other opener Caulfield (71), with the visitors eventually posting187 from their reduced 37 overs, with the highlights being a couple of specialshots from the overseas; flicking Jordy into the houses before driving him for6 over mid off. Dan Jones was the pick of the bowlers (2-33 from 9 overs), withSas Pushpajarah also bowling better than his (0-34 from 10) figures suggested.
With Duckworth Lewis then adjusting the total required to195 from 33 overs, Clifton’s wounded animals from last week’s defeat at Egertonwould have a job on their hands, and were very quickly staring down the barrelof another heavy defeat when the revised top 3 of Jordy (5), Dan (0) and Sas(0) were all back in the shed inside 3 overs with the scoreboard at 10/3.
A superb partnership of 67 from Lewis Keogh and SamWinstanley gave Clifton a kiss of life, before Owen Hogben (30) joined Sam atthe cease and picked up where Lewis (33) left off, putting together a 73 runpartnership to leave Clifton needing 45 to win from the last 9 overs and inwith a real chance to pull this one out of the fire. Young Luke Jones then cameto the crease and made his intentions clear, putting his 4th ball over thefence and into the houses, clearly trying to emulate Sam Winstanley’s flurry ofmaximums as the chase neared its finale.
The chase was complete with back to back boundaries and asingle from Luke (23*), with each of those shots being met with great cheersfrom both the clubhouse end and the lads gathered outside the changing rooms.The relief and fight of pulling this one out of the bag there for all to see.
The clear highlight was the exceptional innings of 87* fromSam Winstanley. An innings of clean ball striking and taking the game deep withtwo big partnerships.
For this side to chase down 195 in 29 overs (4 overs stillto spare), in those conditions, with so many players missing, and the top 3with the bat all failing, once again highlights the strength in depth availablefor this second team who really want to be pushing for promotion again thisseason.