After the euphoria of the 20/20 victory at Walsden on Friday night which gave Ramsbottom a home quarter final draw against Todmorden on Friday night, Ramsbottom slipped to a disappointing defeat at Lowerhouse.
Rammy falter in ‘Open’ Title Race
The home side won the toss and chose to bat on what looked a very good cricketing track. Early indications looked good as the Rammy bowlers bowled tight lines which made scoring very difficult. An early breakthrough came in the ever reliable Fielding struck first blood – bowling the home skipper Heap. This brought Lowerhouse Professional Ockie Erasmus to the crease to join Johnny Whitehead. Both players are prolific run scorers but by the halfway stage of the innings the score had only reached 75 thanks to a disciplined early display. As expected, the home side then lifted the pace and the Rammy fielding, which had been adequate to this point, deteriorated. The home side took full advantage and despite Rammy removing Whitehead and Erasmus just after both had made half centuries, the middle order was allowed to flourish and a challenging score of 227 was posted.
Although our bowling was adequate – only veteran John Fielding looked really dangerous and was rewarded with figures of 5 for 56 off his 15 overs. Our fielding in the second half of the innings was poor with too many fumbles giving unnecessary runs and it appeared to the spectator that a sense of tiredness amongst certain individuals existed.
It was clear that the Rams had a mountain to climb to achieve victory. Tom Parton, who normally finds Lowerhouse his nemesis, looked in good form playing some lovely cover drives before he was caught and bowled for 30. Having lost Michael Howarth earlier, the recently selected Proteas ‘A’ team player – Linde and the experienced Hanson looked to get the innings back on track. Both played very circumspect against good bowling and by the halfway stage we had reached 75, which was exactly the same as the opposition were.
The idea at the half-way stage was to pick up the pace; however the game changed when Linde was adjudged caught and bowled when he clearly thought the ball had not carried. Whereas the Lowerhouse middle order flourished, the Rammy middle order literally rolled over without a whimper. Any excuse that the bowling was the reason were shown to be untrue by the way Rammy man of the match Fielding and Dan Pyke smashing the ball around the park before the former was well held on the boundary for a rapid 30. Pyke finished on 18 not out as the Rams capitulated for 151.
This was an upsetting performance as the team is better than this and although Lowerhouse are a good side we have to be able to perform to a more consistent level if we are to achieve anything moving forward.