Milnrow resounding seven wicket win at home to Oldham

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Milnrow CC v Oldham CC

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Milnrow CC bounced back from a disappointing opening day defeat at Ashton with a resounding seven wicket win at home to Oldham.

Milnrow won the toss and put Oldham into bat and soon made through the breakthrough with overseas amateur Brandon Diplock taking two quick wickets.

Milnrow maintained the pressure throughout the Oldham innings with only J Eric offering good resistance, scoring 53 runs before being removed Diplock.

Indeed Diplock's fine bowling meant that he took the wickets of all of Oldham's top five batsmen. He was ably supported by Declan Wilkinson bowling a fine spell, taking 3 for 18 off six overs, and Aaron Brown bowling very accurately taking 1 for 14 off twelve overs.

Diplock finished with figures of 6/52 from his 13 overs, an excellent performance. It was a tight fielding performance from Milnrow and the Oldham total always looked achievable on a very good pitch.

The Milnrow innings had an immediate set back with Steve Dryden clean bowled by the first ball of the innings but any nerves were soon eased by professional James Price quickly getting into his stride and batting fluently.

Lee Crabtree batted calmly and positively for his 15 runs and captain Max Power offered stability at the end of the innings, but it was Price's superb shotmaking that easily steered Milnrow home.

Price hit 15 fours in his 92 not out, with his fluent shotmaking meaning that his score came off only 66 balls. He hit several great shots through the covers. It meant that Milnrow reached their total in the 23rd over.

Overall it was an excellent result for Milnrow and gives them confidence for the double header at the weekend.

Ashton v Milnrow

In their first game of the season away at Ashton, Milnrow were put into bat on a challenging wicket and batted resiliently to reach 162 for 8. Steve Dryden and Brandon Diplock top scored with 29 and 25 respectively.

This looked a competitive total but Milnrow's bowling was overpowered by some aggressive shotmaking by overseas amateur Mario Boyce and sub pro Guneratne, both hitting quickfire 70s.

Although Milnrow skipper Max Power tried all options with his bowling attack they could not take the wickets required to really put Ashton under pressure and Ashton reached the total after only 26 overs.