Match Report Ramsbottom 1st XI v Lowerhouse 1st XI – 17th June 2023
LCC 288 for 5 (50 overs) RCC 164 all out (35.3 overs)
Scorecard here
Lowerhouse far too strong for us in the Cup
Our new professional Bilal Asif was given an early reminder of the struggle we face this season after seeing us comprehensively beaten by the league leaders in the Worsley Cup quarter final.
Bowling has been our problem all season with the lack of consistency from both amateurs and professionals alike and Saturday started off in a similar vein with our opening attack looking ineffectual and providing the Lowerhouse openers Heap and Haasbroek with easy runs. A change of bowling had little effect and it was the introduction into the attack of our professional, with the score already over 100, that seemed to curtail the scoring.
Our pro got it on the spot from the word go and caused the well established batsmen their first problems. Proving difficult to get away they took to trying to sweep him and survived several LBW appeals before Heap attempted to hit him over the top only to be brilliantly caught by Brad Fielding at deep mid off.
Sadly in the Cup bowlers are only allowed 10 overs but with figures of 2 for 30 the Rammy supporters saw enough of the new professional to think he could do a decent job for us for the rest of the season.
Despite this encouragement the rest of our bowlers got some real punishment and the final total of 288 off 50 overs really took the game away from us.
To make matters worse we were soon two wickets down with only 19 on the board. We then had a promising stand from the in-form Ben Pearson (who had incidentally made a brilliant century in the previous evening’s 20-20 game against Walsden) and our pro who took the score to 82 in quick time thanks to some fine stroke play before Bilal fell caught and bowled off a slower ball that seemed to hold in the wicket. He had made 34 and showed us he can bat. Ben fell stumped some 7 runs later for a fine 42 and we then suffered a middle order collapse before Seb Schofield took the attack to the opposition, hitting seven 4s and a six before tragically being run out by a brilliant piece of fielding when one run short of his maiden senior half century.
Man of the Match – Seb Schofield (a special mention should go to Nick Round, brought into the team following a late injury cry off, who fielded magnificently saving at least 20 runs on boundary patrol and taking a stunning catch)
