Cricket: Edmeades Excels as he nearly leads Middleton home

Middleton Cricket Club

Grant Edmeades, Middleton's professional, showed what a devastating batsman he can be, as he almost single handedly won the match for the home side.

Bobby Cross, Heywood's skipper, won the toss and elected to bat on a typically batsman friendly Towncroft wicket.

Cross and Ross Zelem opened the batting, and set the tone for the innings as they shared a 96 run partnership, before Cross was caught at slip of Edmeades for 48.

Travis Townsend set off from where Cross left, hitting powerful strokes all around the ground.

After taking the score 223, both Townsend and Zelem both fell within five overs of each other.

Andy Dawson then entertained the crowd with a typical swashbuckling innings, that led his team to an imposing total of 292 for 7.

With almost six runs an over needed for victory, Scott Stanworth and George Walker opened the batting. It wasn't long before Heywood's bowlers struck, as Walker fell victim to Humza Naeem for four.

This brought Edmeades to the forefront, and together with Stanworth, compiled a partnership of 123 before the opener was stumped by Pawson off Joe Lovell.

The professional was left unperturbed, as he carried on his fluent attack to all areas of the ground.

Until he made it to three figures, he had hardly played a shot that left the ground. But once he reached the milestone, the shackles came off in the form of hitting Lovell for 30 runs off one over, as he made his third fifty in 13 deliveries. One six cleared the trees at the Towncroft end, and hit the back fence on the full.

Edmeades could not rest on his laurels though, with ten an over still needed. And it was this scoreboard pressure that eventually told as, with the score on 241, he top edged a Naeem slower ball and was well caught by Cross.

The lower order fought until the end, but the asking rate was too much and Middleton ended on 269 for 9, a total that would win most games.

Heywood

R Cross c Davey b Edmeades 48
R Zelem run out 96
T Townsend c Bennett b Edmeades 77
D Pawson c Shadid b Edmeades 15
A Dawson not out 27
W Hunt b Mahmood 1
R Paterson b Mahmood 11
J Lovell b Mahmood 0
A Fawcett not out 1
Extras 14
Total (for 7 wkts, 50 overs) 292
Fall of wickets: 1-96, 2-223, 3-242, 4-252, 5-254, 6-278, 7-278
Bowling: Mahmood 11-1-43-3, Holmes 3-1-18-0, Edmeades 22-1-147-3, Walker 4-0-21-0, Foden 10-0-63-0

Middleton

S Stanworth st Pawson b Lovell 44
G Walker c Kaye b Naeem 4
G Edmeades c Cross b Naeem 160
G Jones st Pawson b Kaye 20
P Bennett c Pawson b Kaye 2
S Davey st Pawson b Kaye 1
M Shadid run out 3
S Mahmood b Kaye 10
M Foden c Pawson b Naeem 1
S Holmes not out 8
C Higginson not out 6
Extras 10
Total (for 9 wkts, 50 overs) 269
Fall of wickets: 1-8, 2-131, 3-173, 4-179, 5-211, 6-241, 7-244, 8-251, 9-256
Bowling: Naeem 10-0-63-3, Paterson 7-0-32-0, Kaye 19-1-77-4, Lovell 13-0-85-1, Townsend 1-0-7-0