Little Lever 1sts Home

Westhoughton 1st team were able to start and finish their game against Little Lever, despite the best efforts of the rain. But unfortunately they didn't perform as well as last time out against top of the table Greenmount.
Having won the toss, Westhoughton captain Rob Houghton elected to bat first and this looked an inspired decision with Westhoughton reaching 50 inside 8 overs, thanks to Ian Pilkington (32), Stephen Murdoch (28) and Ste Parker (19). This led to Westhoughton being 62-2 from 10 overs after both Ste's had been dismissed. However, things soon went downhill for the homeside as for the last 15 overs, Westhoughton failed to score more than six runs in an over. Wickets fell at regular intervals to disrupt the momentum even more, Westhoughton grinding to a half by only scoring 10 runs in the last 3 overs, including losing 3 wickets in the last over trying to get to a competitive total. Only Rob Brown (19) scored more than five runs from the remaining Westhoughton batters.
In response, Westhoughton's bowlers managed to keep things relatively tight and when Stephen Murdoch struck in the seventh over to leave Little Lever 21-1, there was hope for the home side. This hope soon began to fade though as Little Lever's pro, Manzoor, scored 78* from 74 balls to guide his team to a 9 wicket win as they finished on 112-1. Westhoughton will be hoping to find a victory before the season ends to try and start a momentum shift ready for the 2013 season.