Daniel Salpietro hits 153 not out in Norden victory over Clifton

Norden Cricket Club

Daniel Salpietro achieved his highest score for Norden when he blasted the Clifton attack for an unbeaten 153 at Woodhouse Lane on Sunday.

Norden piled up 250 for five but had to settle for four points due to a stubborn Clifton rearguard and a slightly premature finish due to bad light and rain.

Clifton won the toss and decided to bowl. It was a decision that soon started to go wrong as Salpietro and Simon Harman featured in an opening stand of 127.

The professional was first to 50 when he smacked a four of former Norden player Harvey Fitton, and Harman was not far behind, both having blunted the main threat from Steve Cheetham whose 11 overs in two spells cost 77 runs, for nought.

Harman was first to go, leg before to Dean Morris, and four more wickets fell as Norden tried to push the rate along.

Simon North skied a delivery from Harvey Fitton to be easily caught, Ash Gowers and Steve Pimm were both leg before to Gareth Cross, and Dominic Humphreys was caught by Fitton.

But while the wickets were going down Salpietro was smacking the bowling to all parts with a mixture of textbook shots and a few unorthodox hits.

The professional hit 22 fours and four sixes – one of them huge off Cheetham.
The Clifton reply got a bad start when Will Davidson was caught one-handed low by Harman to give Martin Smith his first wicket of the season.

Davidson felt it was a bump ball, but the umpires were happy enough that the catch was clean.

Dean Morris was next to go when he got it all wrong and popped up a delivery from Chris Hartley past the bowler and into the hands of Dom Humphreys.

It became 58 for three when Hartley produced a snorter to bowl Gareth Cross, and six runs later Nitin Srivastava was caught by Simon North.

Chapman was still there, but on 33 he was run out. Phil Docker and Hartley combined to prevent a four, and the throw-in was back flicked onto the stumps by Salpietro with Chapman out of his ground.

Harvey Fitton made a bright 38 which included six fours and two sixes, but him apart the remainder of the Clifton innings became one of attrition, batsmen seemingly content to stay in without looking for the runs which could have taken them to a point for reaching 75 per cent of the home total.

Salpietro took his wicket haul to four as he and Steve Wild gobbled up the overs with spin.
The return of a fast bowler would surely have brought an end to proceedings in the deepening gloom, but an end did come with 10 deliveries outstanding when rain hit the ground.

Norden
S Harman lbw Morris 50
D Salpietro not out 153
S North c McCann b Fitton 17
A Gowers lbw Cross 7
S Pimm lbw Cross 3
D Humphreys c Fitton b Cross 1
S Wild not out 1
Extras 18
Total (for 5 wkts) 250
Bowling: Cheetham 11-0-77-0; Cross 14-1-60-3; Chapman 7-0-39-0; Fitton 8-1-40-1; D Morris 5-0-32-1.

Clifton
W Davidson c Harman b Smith 10
B Chapman run out 33
D Morris c D Humphreys b Hartley 11
G Cross b Hartley 12
N Srivistava c North b Salpietro 5
H Fitton lbw Wild 38
J Brown c and b Salpietro 8
S Dorsey not out 14
C Royle c Gowers b Salpietro 4
J McCann lbw Salpietro 3
S Cheetham not out 8
Extras 19
Total (for 9 wkts) 165
Bowling: Smith 8-1-34-1; Hartley 9-2-37-2; Salpietro 14-6-20-4; Malik 4-0-38-0; Wild 8-2-28-1.