Milnrow CC maintain strong start with victory at Friarmere

Milnrow maintained their strong start to the Pennine Cricket League Championship with another outright victory, this time away at Friarmere, and moved to the top of the table.

Milnrow were put into bat on a challenging wicket but the opening pair of Willis and Crabtree worked hard to score their runs. They put on 79 for the first wicket, with Crabtree, in particular, quick to punish the bad ball.

They were quick between the wickets and Willis showed good resilience in building his innings. Crabtree played some superb shots as he moved to his fifty but was then caught and bowled by Hussain and Willis was trapped lbw ten runs later for 26.

Professional, Rudi Second, and captain, Max Power, then scrapped for their runs as they struggled against good bowling from Sartaj and a slow outfield that stopped several scoring shots reaching the boundary.

Second top edged a sweep shot when on 21 and was caught and Power reached 12 when he edged to slip as Milnrow increasingly struggled on a difficult wicket.

Helliwell, De Villiers and Dryden all tried to keep the score board ticking but it was a little cameo innings of 16 runs, including one six and a four, from young Jack Wynn that took Milnrow to a good total of 171.

The feeling amongst the Milnrow supporters was that this could have been more after the opening partnership, but could have also been less given the uneven bounce from the pitch.

The Milnrow players were determined to bowl and field well and take the points and they showed good commitment right from the start. De Villiers had Akhtar caught by Second in the first over and Charlie Lloyd Jones and Wynn also bowled well to take one and two wickets respectively.

However, it was the bowling of Second that really caught the eye. He bowled a superb spell of eight overs and used the pitch and the variations in his bowling to take the wickets of four of the top six batsmen.

There was concern for Milnrow as Friarmere's West Indian professional, Jones, smashed a quick fire 43, but when Second brought about a false shot from him, Aaron Brown pouched the catch.

Milnrow took regular wickets and bowled Friarmere out for 86 with Second finishing with six for 24.

Ahardworking, determined performance from Milnrow that in the end brought another thumping victory.

On Sunday, Milnrow defeated Royton 6-2 in a bowl out to move into the next round of the Tanner Cup.