Winning ways continue

On the hottest day of the year so far, a young Westhoughton side took on Little Lever in a qualifying game for the Bolton League section of the ECB T/20 tournament.
Having won the toss, the away side elected to bat first and made good progress reaching 30-0 inside the first four overs. Westhoughton did pick up a wicket though as Nathan Blair flicked the ball back on to the stump at the bowlers end, leaving Little Lever 44-1 from their 6 powerplay overs. With pace on the ball being punished, captain Rob Houghton turned to himself and Atiq Uz-Zaman to try and tighten the screw, which they did as Rob took 2-21 from 4 and Atiq 2-22 from 3. This went alongside Nathans 0-19 from 4 and Rob Brown who had 0-26 from 4, restricting Little Lever to 138-5 from 20 overs, a decent total but below par on what looked a good track.
Westhoughton lost an early wicket in the run chase as Mike King went for 4 and, unfortunately for Kingy, he was the only batter to miss out on runs. Atiq continued his fine form with the bat, manipulating the Little Lever field and making 52 from only 28 balls to leave the hosts in total control with the score 70-2 inside 8 overs. Another good partnership from Dan Naylor (30* from 24 balls) and Jason Scheepers (40 from 27 balls) pushed the score to 113 before Jason's knock came to an end when he was caught and bowled. Rob Brown (11*) joined Dan to see Westhoughton over the line and into the next stage of the competition.
We will now face Eagley on Monday 27th May, where Walkden or Astley Bridge will face Horwich. The winners of those two games will then play off for the chance to progress to the next stage of the T/20 competition.