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Sun 30 Jun 2013
Astley Bridge
First Team
232
260/6
Victory Away at Astley Bridge
Seb Miller30 Jun 2013 - 20:58
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A game of twists and turns goes the way of Westhoughton.
Westhoughton 1st XI travelled to Astley Bridge knowing that victory was needed to stay in touch with the chasing pack after Saturday's defeat against Bradshaw.
Having won the toss, captain Ian Pilkington elected to bat first to try and set a total to defend. The visitors got off to a flying start, reaching 54-0 inside 11 overs. Unfortunately Atiq Uz-Zaman (26) and Glenn Bullock (24) both fell with the score on 54. Another decent partnership of 43 developed between Rob Brown (22) and Qaiser Abbas, before Rob and Pilky (0) fell with the score on 97 and 98 respectively. Kieran Paisley (39 from 68 balls) played the support role to Qaiser who top scored with 116* from 98 balls, with three 4's and nine 6's. The Astley Bridge bowlers kept bowling into Qaiser's arch as 99 runs went through the legside, and out of the ground.
In response, Astley Bridge got off to an even better start thanks to some dropped catches by Qaiser and Paul Hart, with birthday boy Kieran Edwards made to suffer as the batter dropped reached 55 from 41 balls, as Kieran went for 54 from 6 overs. Qaiser Abbas (4-93 from 21.2 overs) and Dan Reeve (2-52 from 11 overs) tried to stem the flow of runs but after Bridge were always up with the rate, and had the predicted rain arrived, they would have been in with a shout of winning. As it was, the rain stayed away and Paul Hart (3-30 from 8 overs) combined with Qaiser to ensure that despite a nervy finish, where Westhoughton needed to bowl 5 overs in just under 10 minutes to avoid penalty runs, saw the innings wrapped up and victory ensured as Harty took the winning catch off Qaiser's bowling. Bridge finished 232 all out, and the lads now face a tough game against Walkden who thrashed high-flying Bradshaw by 9 wickets on Sunday.
Having won the toss, captain Ian Pilkington elected to bat first to try and set a total to defend. The visitors got off to a flying start, reaching 54-0 inside 11 overs. Unfortunately Atiq Uz-Zaman (26) and Glenn Bullock (24) both fell with the score on 54. Another decent partnership of 43 developed between Rob Brown (22) and Qaiser Abbas, before Rob and Pilky (0) fell with the score on 97 and 98 respectively. Kieran Paisley (39 from 68 balls) played the support role to Qaiser who top scored with 116* from 98 balls, with three 4's and nine 6's. The Astley Bridge bowlers kept bowling into Qaiser's arch as 99 runs went through the legside, and out of the ground.
In response, Astley Bridge got off to an even better start thanks to some dropped catches by Qaiser and Paul Hart, with birthday boy Kieran Edwards made to suffer as the batter dropped reached 55 from 41 balls, as Kieran went for 54 from 6 overs. Qaiser Abbas (4-93 from 21.2 overs) and Dan Reeve (2-52 from 11 overs) tried to stem the flow of runs but after Bridge were always up with the rate, and had the predicted rain arrived, they would have been in with a shout of winning. As it was, the rain stayed away and Paul Hart (3-30 from 8 overs) combined with Qaiser to ensure that despite a nervy finish, where Westhoughton needed to bowl 5 overs in just under 10 minutes to avoid penalty runs, saw the innings wrapped up and victory ensured as Harty took the winning catch off Qaiser's bowling. Bridge finished 232 all out, and the lads now face a tough game against Walkden who thrashed high-flying Bradshaw by 9 wickets on Sunday.
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