Cricket: Heywood get no change from Whalley Range

Heywood Cricket Club slipped meekly out of the Derek Kay 1st X1 Cup at Whalley Range on Sunday 5 May.

The final margin of victory by 70 runs did not flatter the home side on what was a below par day at the office for the visitors.

Whalley Range’s total of 187-9, after being put in, looked a stiff target. And so it proved as Heywood’s reply started badly and went steadily downhill as they stuttered to 117 all out.

The home side did not look like posting too formidable a target after reaching 56-3 in the 17th over. But once P Appanna was joined in the middle by Junaid Maqsood the tide started to turn.

The fourth-wicket stand realised 77 in little more than 21 overs and paved the way for the lower order batsmen to swing lustily.

Appanna was the stand-out with a half-century, Maqsood weighed in with 25, and there were further positive contributions from Junaid Fakir (20) and Rahul Vaghmaria (12).

Jack Morley anchored the Heywood attack with 4-32 from his nine overs, and Mikey Grogan bagged a couple of wickets, while professional Faisal Iqbal weighed in with a tidy nine-over spell of 0-22.

Perhaps the highlight of the innings, however, was a stunning catch by 16-year-old Jacob Kaye – stepping into the side for the unavailable Bobby Cross – leaping and taking a one-handed catch over his head at backward point.

But from then on, the game was all one-way traffic in favour of the home side.

They stumbled to 23-3 as James Kettleborough was adjudged lbw, Morley was cleaned up by a first ball delivery that hit leg stump, and Iqbal – after a couple of sweetly timed cover drives – danced down the wicket to left-arm spinner Vaghmaria and was comprehensively stumped for 11.

Wickets continued to fall at regular intervals amid little cameos from Mikey Witts (16), Sean Burrill (12), Wes Hunt (12) and Simon Dawson (16).

But only Andy Dawson, underlining his excellent early season form, really looked capable of getting on top of the home bowlers by contributing 30 until being ninth man out.

Whalley Range

• F Ahmad c Burrill b Hilton 22
• S Cohan c Kettleborough b Morley 20
• Z Malik lbw b S Dawson 0
• P Appanna b Grogan 50
• J Maqsood b Grogan 25
• J Fakir b Morley 20
• S Malik c A Dawson b Morley 3
• R Vaghmaria c Kaye b Morley 12
• A Zeeshan run out 9
• P Davies not out 0
• Extras 26
• Total (for 9 wkts,  45 overs) 187
• Fall of wickets: 1-30, 2-30, 3-56, 4-133, 5-142, 6-164, 7-166, 8-179, 9-187
• Bowling: S Dawson 9-1-43-1, C Hilton 7-2-22-1, F Iqbal 9-1-22-0, J Morley 9-3-32-4, J Kettleborough 6-0-33-0, M Grogan 5-0-24-2

Heywood

• J Kettleborough lbw b Davies 3
• M Witts b Z Malik 16
• J Morley b Davies 0
• F Iqbal st S Malik b Vaghmaria 11
• S Burrill c and b Z Malik 12
• A Dawson c Chohan b Zeeshan 30
• W Hunt c and b Vaghmaria 12
• M Grogan c Anjum b Z Malik 4
• S Dawson c Zeeshan b Vaghmaria 16
• J Kaye b Zeeshan 2
• C Hilton not out 0
• Extras 11
• Total (36.4 overs) 117
• Fall of wickets: 1-9, 2-9, 3-23, 4-48, 5-58, 6-77, 7-82, 8-107, 9-117, 10-117
• A Zeeshan 7.4-2-19-2, P Davies 6-1-21-2, R Vaghmaria 9-3-24-3, S Anjum 1-0-11-0, Z Malik 8-2-23-3, S Chohan 4-0-14-0, J Fakir 1-0-5-0