Mixed fortunes for Milnrow Cricket

Milnrow Cricket Club

Milnrow bounced back from a resounding home defeat by Heyside on Saturday to secure an excellent win at Werneth on Sunday.

On Saturday, Milnrow struggled in the face of some excellent bowling and fielding from Heyside. Heyside's professional, Shadley van Schwalkwyk, opened the bowling and bowled with real skill to remove Milnrow's top three batsmen with the score on just 21.

Van Schwalkwyk moved the ball both ways and with real zip, whilst also varying his pace.

Many observers commented on the level of skill being shown and Milnrow's batsmen struggled all afternoon with the accuracy.

As he has done many times, however, skipper Max Power had to lead a rearguard action and again he did it with real skill. He batted doggedly to rebuild the score, receiving good help from Wilkinson, Wilson and Diplock, but in the last ten overs he batted brilliantly to get Milnrow to a score of 177 for 8.

Power was out in the last over, having scored 82. His last 30 runs came in 10 balls and included two sixes and a four in the 49th over.

This gave the Milnrow supporters and players some belief that they could defend their total. However this was quickly blown away by some aggressive batting by the Heyside openers, particularly Holt who scored 84 from 66 balls.

Milnrow were never able to sustain any pressure and Heyside reached their total in 28 .1 overs.

This meant that the team had to bounce back on Sunday, away at Werneth, and they struggled to contain the batting of former Milnrow player Ali Muzzafar, who scored 139 not out.

The other Werneth players faced some good bowling from the Milnrow attack and only one other Werneth player made over 12 runs.

Most notable performance from the Milnrow lads was Aaron Brown's 5 for 82 from 22 overs. Brown has been performing really well this season and this was a great return from him.

All the other bowlers chipped in with a wicket each, but the total looked a high one and much of the responsibility of getting there rested on the shoulders of Milnrow professional, James Price.

To the delight of the Milnrow supporters, Price batted brilliantly and made his second century of the season. His 104 came from just 75 balls and he showed his full range of classy shots. His innings included 15 fours and three sixes in an opening stand of 147 with Rob Wilman.

Wilman's innings was also appreciated by the Milnrow players and supporters. He batted resolutely, understood his role perfectly as Price dominated the bowling, and played some excellent shots himself as he hit five fours.

Price was out with the total on 147 and Wilman batted with captain, Max Power, to take the total on to 176 before, disappointingly, he was out on 46, four runs short of a maiden 50 for the first team.

Wilkinson was out for a duck before Power and Dryden led the team home fluently.

The Werneth total was reached in the 42nd over and Power and Dryden finished on 45 and 37 not out respectively.

This was a fine win for Milnrow considering the disappointment of the previous day.

Also worth noting was the first team debut of another one of Milnrow's talented youngsters. George Booth, 15 on Saturday, came in as replacement wicketkeeper and performed very well with the gloves, taking a couple of catching and a stumping over the weekend.

Meanwhile, the second team had a brilliant win against top of the table Royton, largely thanks to an unbeaten 40 from 12 year old Keelan Shipley. He took the team from 88 for 8 to 190 for 9 and this set up a great victory in which he also took four catches as Royton were dismissed for 106.

Milnrow are trying to give their emerging youngsters games in their senior team and are being repaid for showing this faith.

The club now looks for consistency in all its teams as they try and build on positive individual performances.