Match Report Ramsbottom 1st XI v Haslingden CC 1st XI – 26 June 2022
HCC 177 all out (49.1 overs) RCC 111 all out (35.2 overs)
Scorecard here
Bentgate Blues
After the joy of the previous weekend the Rams were brought back down to earth with bang at Bentgate.
Winning the toss and inserting the opposition on a wicket that looked quite green and bowler friendly the Rams enjoyed an early success thanks to a brilliant catch by Sen in the slips. After that we reverted to type and gave the opposition some easy runs. It was only when Dan Pyke and Sen were introduced into the attack that we seem to slow down Haslingden’s scoring rate. Pykey picked up the important wickets of Friend (to another brilliant Sen catch) and sub pro Weerasinghe in a good ten over spell. After that opener Bhada and Alex Coleman took the score to 114 before Owen Codge was introduced into the attack. With his first ball he deflected a Bhada drive onto the stumps to run out the unlucky Coleman. Then with his 2nd delivery he trapped Bhada LBW. After conceding only 4 from the over he was surprisingly replaced. For the rest of the Haslingden innings they had to face up to the spin of Sen and Josh and they both did a good job until the penultimate when Lewis McIntosh smashed Sen for 24 before being stumped off a wide. Josh secured us two important points with the wicket of Hassy captain Jordan Shannon to finish with excellent figures of 3 for 21 off 9.1 overs.
A target of 177 should have been well within our compass but the Rammy batting had already been dealt a severe blow with Tom Parton having to cry off with his injured knee. We lost an early wicket when Brad Fielding, who is having a miserable season in the league, lofted a simple catch to cover. Alex Olpin and Grimmy then took the score into the 40s and brought about a change in bowling with Sudworth replacing Sipocz. It was Sudworth who proved to be the game changer for the home side. His first victim was Grimmy who lofted an on drive and was easily caught a deep mid one. After that the Rammy batting struggled to cope against some tight but not unplayable spin bowling. Nobody seemed to want to graft it out and we subsided to 111 all out. The big disappointment was the fact that 15 overs were left to be bowled. Of our late order batsmen I am sure that Dale Gabriel and Dan Pyke will regret the fact that they were both caught on the boundary when they both looked relatively comfortable at the wicket and capable of scoring much more.
This was a very poor performance with the bat and although credit goes to Sudworth and the Hassy sub pro Weerasinghe nobody seemed to want to graft it out against them and see what the inevitable change of bowling could bring. We are in a very precarious position and all points are vital and we should be looking at gaining batting points, something we have not achieved thus far.
In the 2nd half of the season we have to look where we are going wrong and address the situation with both our batting and bowling or else we would face the dreaded drop which would be a disaster for the club.
Amateur Man of the Match – Josh for another fine piece of bowling.
