Greenmount CC 283-5 - Bury CC 216-9
After a few late changes, Bury CC 2nd XI set off for Greenmount with a good blend of youth and experience, four u18s and one u15 alongside some older-stagers. Captain James Stone won the toss and asked the hosts to bat which looked a very good decision as they were restricted to a mere 18 from the first thirteen overs thanks to some miserly bowling from Arshad Raza and Usman Afridi. The one wicket to fall came from a good catch in the covers by Ahmad Bin Hussain off Afridi. The second wicket came when junior leg-spinner Lleyton Belston coaxed a false shot from Foy and Ali Hassan made good ground from mid-off to take the catch at mid-on. Donnelly and new man McNaughton then began to push the run rate upwards until Donnelly (41) was caught by Sam Leach in the covers off Matt Metcalfe putting the score on 108-3. Willetts (2) was next to go, bowled by Afridi but with McNaughton, after being dropped a couple of times, now firmly in charge, the home side began to pile on the runs and he ended the innings with a magnificent 152 not out from 90 balls which included ten 4s and thirteen 6s, one of which is probably somewhere near Woodbank CC as we speak. Credit must also go to Banks who, after a slow start, moved quickly on to an unbeaten 50 as Greenmount finished on 283-4.
This target was going to be a major test of character for Bury and they set off well with Stone taking 9 off the first over. In the second though he offered a return catch to bowler Crawford but the ball shot through his hands, clipped the bails and the unfortunate Hassan was run out. Stone then made good partnerships first with Hussain (24) and then Ikky Gorsi and Bury were going along well and keeping up to the required rate. When Stone went for 45, Leach (18) and Gorsi (75) carried on the good work until Gorsi was bowled by one that stayed very low. The later batsmen were unable to keep up the required rate so after some frantic arithmetic on the balcony, the 75% total was worked out to be 213 and the final pair of Belston and Metcalfe got the us over the line and kept their wickets intact to gain the batting bonus point at 216-9. Williams was the pick of the Greenmount bowlers taking 6-54.
Bury should take somepositives from this performance as they could have easily lost heart and been skittled for less than a hundred but everyone worked hard to ensure that we did not let ourselves down.
Roger Mitchell
