Cricket: Chapman’s day as he rescues Rochdale at Accrington

Rochdale Cricket Club  endured a familiar top order collapse at Accrington on Saturday and at their lowest point were 8 for 3 but a memorable performance by Ben Chapman saved the day.

Characteristic of their batting this season has been Rochdale's ability to dig themselves out of parlous situations and this time their repair team consisted of Ben Chapman and Michael

Harling who put on 122 for the fourth wicket, and their performance cannot be understated given the poor quality of the batting surface.

Chapman is a burly fellow and normally plays accordingly, beefing the ball about here and there, but the circumstances here required a degree of watchfulness and Chapman supplied it.

Harling is naturally more patient so was well suited to the role needed on this occasion and gradually they restored the balance, somehow negotiating deliveries that either flew through head high or kept low.

Both drove anything overpitched beautifully, in Chapman’s case, three straight drives going out of the ground and it was something of a surprise when Harling lofted Graeme Seddon meekly to mid-off.

Chapman had passed his half century by this time, but he perished soon after for 67.

The quality of his, and Harling’s, innings was underlined by the rest of Rochdale’s order struggling to score, or even survive.

Still they managed to muster enough to post a challenging 185, a total most considered eminently defendable.

So it proved. Steve Oddy did for the top order, claiming three early wickets, and with Tom Avery chipping in Accrington were sinking at 38 for 4 and in need of a Chapman/Harling type of rescue.

Home professional janith Liyanage and Seddon hinted at providing it, but a sublime piece of bowling by Will Avery, who lured Liyange too far forward for Jamie Roche to complete the stumping, halted the recovery.

Enter stage left again Ben Chapman. Having viewed Accrington’s innings so far he was now introduced into the attack and duly wiped away the Accrington tail by complying with standard tactic of bowling full and straight.

He clattered the stumps four times to finish with 4 for 14 and complete for him the most memorable of days.

Rochdale

• J Avery  c  Bancroft  b  Clarke   1
• J Pilling  b  Hayhurst   7
• E Moore   c  Hayhurst   b  Clarke  0
• B Chapman  c  Bancroft  b  Grimshaw   67
• M Harling  c  Seddon  b  Grimshaw   42
• A Dawson  b  Grimshaw   12
• J Duffy  b  Liyanage   1
• T Avery  c  Hayhurst  b Liyanage  10 
• J Roche  b  liyanage  2
• S Oddy  not  out  2
• W Avery  c  Hayhurst  b  Liyanage  1
• Extras    37
• Total, 48.3 overs,   185
• Bowling:  Clarke  10  4  20  2;  Hayhurst  5  2  14  1;  Liyanage  8.3  1  40  4;  Brown  8  1  28  0:
• Jakeman  2  0  8  0;  Kasser  8  0  32  0;  Grimshaw  7  1  35  3.

Accrington

• R Hussain  c  Dawson   b  oddy  10
• J Clarke  c  Roche  b  T Avery  4
• A Jakeman   c  Chapman  b  b  Oddy   8
• K Grimshaw  b  Oddy  3
• J Liyanage  st  Roche  b  W Avery 14
• G Seddon  b  Chapman  16
• A Greenwood  c  Roche  b  W Avery  1
• S Bancroft  b  Chapman  0
• J Hayhurst  b  Chapman  1
• R Kasser  b  Chapman  0
• Extras  26
• Total, 30 overs  88
• Bowling: Oddy 10 1   38  3; T Avery  9 2  25  1; Chapman  6 3 14  4;  W Avery  5 3 6  2.

Rochdale, 12 points, beat Accrington,  2 points, by 97 runs.