Defence of Junior Cup starts with victory at Rishton by Robert Read

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Scorecard:

Rishton Second XI v Ramsbottom Second XI

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DateLine: 19th May 2008

 

After the disappointment of a rained off game against Burnley the previous day, Ramsbottom 2nds traveled to Rishton in the first round of the cup. The scene was set, as previous seasons have seen Ramsbottom, ‘destroy’ Rishton on several occasions.

 

After winning the toss and opting to bowl, Andy Dalby and Jack Walmsley used the life in the wicket to put early pressure on the two Rishton openers. Jack quickly found extra pace and bounce, helping him secure the first wicket, superbly caught by stand-in wicket keeper Richard Rothwell.

 

Hassan Farooq and Rizwan Shahid bowled with guile as the Rishton batters struggled to score runs at any damaging rate. In-form Ross Brown joined the attack and began to extract turn and bounce from the dry pitch, unluckily having two caught behinds turned down.

 

Dale Gabriel replaced Ross and soon found his line and length with Matt Lees bowling extremely well at the death, with full balls to restrict the Rishton score to 125 all out.

 

Batting got off to a flying start with Sam Price and Richard Rothwell hitting the ball to all parts of the ground with some powerful and well timed shots before a misjudged pull shot from Sam resulted in him being caught out. Chris Wood continued the batting onslaught with some quick runs before playing across a straight ball.

 

Captain, Rob Read, hit the winning boundary to complete a comprehensive victory. A mention has to be given to Richard Rothwell who finished unbeaten looking in fantastic form, not giving a chance.

 

Another good performance, the only negatives being too many extras bowled and sloppy fielding in places, so things to improve on. We look forward to hosting Enfield in the Second Round at Acre Bottom.

(Article: The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author only.
Copyright © 2008 RammyCricket)