Greenmount Away 2014

With revenge on the mind for the one-sided cup game from earlier in the season, Westhoughton got off to a perfect start against Greenmount - once the rain had cleared! The game was reduced to 40 overs per side due to the late start. Having seen a 200+ run opening partnership in the cup, it was a total reverse here as both openers were dismissed with only 8 runs on the board thanks to Qaiser Abbas and Kieran Edwards respectively. There was a slight recovery as the hosts pushed on to 55-2 but it took them 24 overs to reach this point. Following this, Qaiser picked up his 2nd wicket along with Dan Reeve picking up a wicket to see Greenmount 80-4 with only 9 overs left. It was expected they would make a big charge with 6 wickets in the tent but Qaiser (2-40) continued to tie down his end and Atiq Uz-Zaman came on at the other end to somehow finish with 5-22 from his 5 overs as the batters looked to score quickly but seemed to always find a fielder waiting on the boundary. Greenmount finished 122-9 from their 40 overs.
In reply, Rob Houghton (16) and Ian Pilkington (1) fell to leave the visitors 57-2 after 21 overs. From this point, Atiq (64 not out) continued on his way at his own pace whilst Qaiser (38) took it upon himself to speed up the result hitting three fours and three sixes to take Westhoughton within 13 runs of victory before he was dismissed. In the end it was an excellent 7 wicket win for the lads against one of the sides they have struggled to beat in the past few seasons.