Burton Leonard v Birstwith

Burton Leonard 1st team played host to top of the league Birstwith on Saturday and narrowly lost by 24 runs.

Burton Leonard won the toss and with the wicket slightly soft on top and the outfield still wet from the recent bad weather, Birstwith were asked to bat first.

Birstwith got off to a very positive start with J Riley hitting some lusty 4’s early on, however the cameo did not last long as Rob ‘Muzza’ Murray began his impressive day by rattling the timbers. J Riley back in the hut for 15. That then brought the Birstwith skipper D Riley, who could only manage to last 4 deliveries before Murray struck again, clean bowling him for 0.

Having lost two quick wickets, the league leaders looked to consolidate their innings, R Nelson playing a patient, but impressive innings. During this period Burton were unlucky on several occasions with chances falling just shy of a number of fielders and the Burton keeper for the day Eustace, getting a glove to a tough chance off the bowling of the gutsy Ali Wilson. After drinks, Burton struck straight away, Skipper Blaken answering the ‘one drinks’ shout, clean bowling K Barnes for 9.

Burton continued to bowl economically with the improving leg spin of ‘Cooky’ Parker asking questions of the batsmen and claiming the wickets of the dangerous B Hodgson for 9 and S Moore for 3. Then it was time to roll back the years as Burton’s skipper turned to the ‘experienced’ Stu Barker in the hope that he would squeeze the Birstwith batsmen for runs during the middle overs. This proved to be a shrewd move as Barker claimed 3-15, including the wicket of the dogged R Nelson for 41, with his first ball, giving a lesson to the young pretenders in the art of line and length bowling.

With the opening bowlers back on to finish off the innings and overs, Murray claimed 2 wickets in one over to leave Birstwith 138 all out – a very impressive bowling and fielding performance from Burton Leonard.

Bowling Figures: R Murray 4-15, S Barker 3-15, C Parker 2-24, N Blaken 1-12. Ali Wilson (0-25) and Mark Fox (0-29) both bowled well, with little luck and no reward.

Burton Leonard’s innings got off to the worst possible start in the very first over, vice captain and leading run scorer Mike Wray caught behind for 0 off the metronomic P Green. Replays later showing that Wray’s disappointment with decision was justified with the ball missing the edge of the bat. The empire continued to crumble in the second over, Simon Parkinson clean bowled third ball, Birswith’s ‘Wazza’ hitting top of his off stump. Burton 0-2!!

Similar to Birstwith, Burton proceeded to consolidate the innings, ‘Cooky’ and Eustace both played patient innings. In the eighth over, Eustace had decided, the Atherton school of batting really wasn’t for him, despatching the Wazza for 4, 6, 4 and 4 in successive balls to quell the ‘chirp’ from the fielders and shift the momentum back in Burton’s favour. This did not last long however, a change in the bowling starting yet another Burton middle order collapse. A Heard’s tidy leg spin claiming Eustace, feathering one behind for a grafted 30. Another change of bowling from the scorebox end, claiming Cooky, caught at extra cover off J Atkinson for 13.

Time for a skipper’s innings? Afraid not, N Blaken gets one out of the toe of the bat attempting to send Heard out of the ground, sking to mid on for 0. Stu Barker comes in, but the pond animals keep on appearing, LBW to Atkinson for 0. Burton 45-6 after 19 overs! Mark Fox played patiently and looked to be set for a good score until Heard got yet another to turn up the hill beating the bat, Foxy stumped for 10. Andy Woods was also done in the flight and was stumped off the bowling of Heard for yet another quacker!

Rob Murray and Ali Wilson, both played fantastic innings to get Burton close to the 100 mark. Muzza showing his improving technique and calmness at the crease and ‘A dot’ Wilson providing the crowd with some entertaining boundaries, the pick of which was a straight six off the Aussie paceman, backed up with a shout of “catch that one back in Oz” from the fired up Foxy in the pavilion.

Muzza was eventually bowled by for a gritty 30 by P Green when the score was on 96-9 with seven overs remaining for Burton to bat out for a point, under skipper’s orders. Neily Carass carried this out expertly at one end. Unfortunately for Ali Wilson, he was not rewarded for his cameo innings, P Green producing ‘a jaffer’ to clean bow him for 26. Burton 114 all out with 9 balls remaining.

A good game in the end, with Burton Leonard pushing the league leaders right to the wire. Positives can also to be taken in the continued consistency of the bowling and fielding once again, and the performance of the lower order batsmen. Burton Leonard now face a tough game away at third placed Rainton next weekend.

This entry was posted on Monday August 18th, 2008 at 12:54 PM and is filed under Sport. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response.

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