So Close But Yet So Far

Westhoughton 1st XI travelled to Little Lever knowing that victory would leave them with a great chance to turn up the pressure on their hosts at the top of the table, but knew that defeat would all but end their title hopes.
Having won the toss after a delayed start, meaning the game would be 40 overs per side, Westhoughton elected to field first and despite Little Lever reaching 50 inside 11 overs, they were soon two wickets down as Kieran Edwards (2-66 from 11 overs) struck followed by Qaiser Abbas (2-66 from 14 overs). Wickets continued to fall at regular intervals as Dan Reeve (3-38 from 9 overs) found form after struggling for line early on, but a late partnership of 48* from only 7 overs saw Little Lever finish their 40 overs with 207-7 on the board.
Westhoughton got off to a bad start losing Glenn Bullock first ball for 0, Atiq Uz-Zaman for 29 and Qaiser for 7. They were 38-3 and with their backs against the wall. Ian Pilkington (45) and Rob Brown (64) shared a 111 partnership and put Westhoughton in control, they were 148-3 with 10 overs left needing exactly a run-a-ball to secure victory. However, both were dismissed in two balls and the game changed. Kieran Paisley (19 from 15 balls) tried his best to swing the momentum back in Westhoughton favours, but once he fell, Westhoughton went from 172-5 to 184 all out as they went for the victory until the very end.
It was a brave effort from the lads who were distraught to have fallen short of victory, hopefully it can be used as a motivation to secure a top 5 (LKO) place for next season.