Walkden Home 2013

After losing the toss on a blistering hot day and being asked to field, Westhoughton feared a long day was ahead of them. This was especially true when Walkden reached 54-0 after 14 overs. Paul Hart (2-77 from 16) then struck twice in quick succession to leave Walkden 69-2, and Harty combined with first team debutant Sean Dunning for a run out that left Walkden 96-3 with 31 overs gone. Unfortunately for the hosts, the score reached 160-3 before the next break-through, but what happened next was something more acustomed to Westhoughton batting of years gone by rather than bowling! Kieran Edwards picked up 4 wickets for 10 runs in 16 balls (finishing with figures of 4-34 from 9 overs overall), including 3 in 4 balls in his final over. Alongside this, Kieran and Harty added two more run outs as Walkden were all out in the final over, losing their last 7 wickets in under 6 overs. Walkden finished on 176 all out, with Qaiser Abbas only picking up one wicket, but only conceding 45 runs in 20.2 overs.
Westhoughton got off to a bad start losing Glenn Bullock (3) with only 21 runs on the board, but this was the only high point of the innings for Walkden. Despite Rob Brown (34) and Atiq Uz-Zaman (66) also being dismissed, thanks to partnerships of 58 (between Rob and Atiq) and 81 between Atiq and Qaiser Abbas, who finished unbeaten on 51, virtually finished the game with little-to-no worries for the hosts. Ian Pilkington also added another not out to his collection as he scored 4 runs.
At the half way point of the season, Westhoughton are within touching distance of the chasing pack, but are three wins away from league leaders Little Lever.