Cricket: Heywood suffer middle order blues

Heywood Cricket Club fell to their second successive defeat on their return to the Greater Manchester Premier League, losing to Egerton by five wickets.

Heywood were 84-2 then collapsed to 104-7 and were all out for 132.

Heywood can argue that they lost the toss and faced difficult conditions, but their batting display clearly left the bowlers with too much to do.

Egerton were 36-3 before reaching their victory target with five wickets in hand.

Heywood’s batting main stay was Danny Pawson, who went in at 50-2 and was as fluent as any batsman on the day with 42 off 61 balls before being ninth man out to leave the side 125-9 and able to muster only another seven runs.

Earlier, captain Travis Townsend had looked good in a second-wicket stand of 30 with Andy Kerr, then 34 with Pawson.

Once Kerr went for 19, and Townsend was bowled by Syd de Silva for 27 trying to force the pace, the decline again started.

Simon Dawson, with an enthusiastic 11 in an eighth-wicket stand of 21 with Pawson, was the only other player to reach double figures.

It was again left to the Heywood bowlers to pick up the pieces.

They started well with Tom McQuinn trapping Marcus Pratt lbw and Simon Dawson having overseas amateur Pandu Maduwantha caught by Morley at backward point, both without scoring and the scoreboard showing 10-2.

That became 36-3 when Egerton captain Will Halton, who had earlier claimed five wickets in the second half of the Heywood innings, was run out by a throw from Morley in the same position looking for a quick single but being sent back by de Silva.

The match was in the balance when Matt Parkinson, the Lancashire leg-spinner more renowned for his bowling, joined de Silva to turn the tide. They put together a stand of 41, with de Silva an impressive chief aggressor, so it was a surprise when he attempted a sweep off Morley and was bowled around his legs for 37.

When Danny Partington went 11 runs later, well caught and bowled low down by Simon Dawson for eight, it was 88-5 and 45 runs were still needed.

All the while Parkinson had been grittily hanging in at the other end, despite playing and missing several times, and he found the ideal ally in Amal Dalugoda. They put together the match-winning stand of 46, Parkinson battling away for 32 off 86 balls and Dalugoda providing the aggression with 21 from 28 balls.

Heywood
R Cross b Patel 9
A Kerr c D Partington b de Silva 19
T Townsend b de Silva 27
D Pawson b M Parkinson 42
R Paterson st D Partington b Halton 2
J Morley c Patel b Halton 5
A Dawson b de Silva 1
M Witts lbw b Halton 0
S Dawson st D Partington b Halton 11
K Cross not out 3
T McQuinn b Halton 4
Extras 9
Total (47.3 overs) 132
Fall of wickets: 1-20, 2-50, 3-84, 4-93, 5-100, 6-103, 7-104, 8-125, 9-125, 10-132
Bowling: A Dalugoda 9-4-21-0, R Patel 8-1-18-1, M Parkinson 9-1-33-1, S de Silva 13-2-39-3, W Halton 8.3-3-20-5.

Egerton
W Halton run out 20
M Pratt lbw b McQuinn 0
P Manduwantha c Morley b S Dawson 0
S de Silva b Morley 37
M Parkinson not out 32
D Partington c and b S Dawson 8
A Dalugoda not out 21
Extras 16
Total (for five wickets, 44.4 overs) 134
Fall of wickets: 1-9, 2-10, 3-36, 4-77, 5-88
Bowling: S Dawson 13-1-31-2, T McQuinn 11.4-2-45-1, J Morley 13-3-39-1, K Cross 6-2-11-0, R Paterson 1-0-6-0