T/20 Disappointment for Firsts

Having seen two sides pull out of the competition, Westhoughton found themselves with a home tie against Egerton (who beat Eagley earlier in the day) for a place in the final of the Bolton League section of the ECB T/20 (Dixon Air Conditioning) Competition.
Egerton won the toss and batted first and got off to a blistering start reaching 51-0 inside their 6 powerplay overs. Two run outs soon followed, first from Matt Trow who got a direct hit from the long on boundary and second from Jimmy Burrow who combined with Rob Houghton to leave Egerton 65-2. A couple of decent partnerships helped push the run rate along at 7 an over for the rest of the innings, but there was some success for the hosts bowlers as Kieran Edwards finished with 3-23 and Dan Higham picked up his first two wickets in the first team. Egerton finished on 138-7 from their 20 overs and were confident of being able to defend a similar total to their quarter final display.
In response Westhoughton lost some key early wickets as the new opening combination of Atiq Uz-Zaman (14) and Sean Dunning (10) didn't have the desired effect with Westhoughton 36-3 at the end of their 6 powerplay overs. Wickets fell at regular intervals as only two other batters, Rob Houghton (11) and top scorer Matt Trow (27*) reached double figures as the hosts ended on 105-9 off their 20 overs. It was a disappointing exit for the lads in their first T/20 game of the campaign but can now turn their attention to the league and Lancs Knock Out respectively.