Bradshaw 1sts Home

Westhoughton 1st XI experienced a day of highs and lows against Bradshaw in a game that was reduced to 46 overs per side due to a delayed start with a wet outfield.
Having won the toss, Westhoughton elected to bat first and they made slow but steady progress to reach 34-0 inside 14 overs. They soon found themselves 48-3 though after 22 overs with Rob Houghton, Ste Parker and Ian Pilkington all dismissed. This brought Stephen Murdoch (37) and Dan Naylor (25) who added a very well constructed 76 for the 4th wicket which set Westhoughton up for a big final 8 overs, or so they had hoped for. Once Dan and Ste fell in successive overs, the runs tried up, with only six runs being scored in the next four overs. Kieran Paisley, Paul Hart and Rob Brown all fell trying to add late runs but Westhoughton finished on 155-8 fro their 46 overs, a total that was helped massively by the 25 extras from the Bradshaw bowlers.
Bradshaw's reply got off to the best possible start as they reached 77-0 in only 14 overs. Paul Hart broke the deadlock with an LBW, after plenty of other appeals had been turned down. This didn't stop the Bradshaw batters though as they reached 123 before losing another wicket, and despite them being in the 31st over by this point they were in total control of their run chase, not needing to risk their wicket with big shots. Rob Brown picked up a couple of wickets, finishing with 2-13 from 5.2 overs (had been 2-5 from 5, with 3 maidens before a couple of big shots from the Bradshaw pro) along with Kieran Edwards who picked up two catches, one of which a superb reflex catch off his own bowling.
There were some positives to take for the lads, but the fantastic start the Bradshaw batters got off to meant it was always too much to recover from. With only two games left, Westhoughton are still looking for that elusive win to try and finish the season on some sort of high note.