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Weekend misery for Middleton

31/ 7/2008

A POOR batting display condemned Middleton to their second defeat of the weekend on Sunday at the hands of Littleborough.

Opting to bat first, the Moonrakers made a paltry 124 all out before Littleborough knocked them off with the loss of six wickets.

With these two sides – traditionally two of the more successful teams over years gone by – struggling this season, the match could have gone either way. However, it was not to be for Middleton.

The less said about their innings the better. Both openers, Martin Roberts and Steve Davey, went early thanks to some quality seam bowling from the Littleborough opening bowlers, for nought and five respectively.

Deputy professional Nishit Shetty looked classy, as did Jimmy Ryan, but again both got out after getting starts. Shetty was out to a good catch, Phil Deakin making it safe at the second attempt, while Ryan offered a simple catch to cover from the bowling of Brendon Miskella.

From there on in, the Moonrakers struggled to score runs at any real pace and at the half way stage they were only on 61 for 3.

Tom Read tried his best to get the innings momentum, but when he was out for 21, Littleborough re-applied the pressure. Skipper John Punchard was then bowled before Stuart Fitton and Sam Warren put together a ‘mini’ partnership of 20 until Fitton was out to a poor shot – hitting a wide one from Andy Rodgerson to overseas amateur Rudi Kaiser at cover.

Richard Fitton and wicketkeeper Andrew Deakin failed to trouble the scorers – both out in the same Rodgerson over – before Dale Highton was the last man to fall on nine with the total on 124.

To be truthful, Littleborough bowled superbly, while the Middleton batsmen buckled. Miskella was the pick of the bowlers with two for 24, while Rodgerson picked up three for 20 from nine.

Littleborough came out in a completely different attitude to the Moonrakers. Overseas amateur Kaiser blazed his way to a 59 ball half century – destroying anything loose the bowlers offered him – before he played one shot too many from the bowling of the once again impressive Dale Highton, offering a simple catch to Martin Roberts at mid on.

Highton continued to chip away superbly, eventually taking five, making it nine for the weekend (after four at Oldham the previous day), in what was the only positive to come out of the match for the Moonrakers.

Shetty too tried hard, but a paltry total of 124 was never going to be enough, the visitors making it home with 12 overs and four wickets to spare much to the disappointment of the biggest crowd of the season on a gloriously sunny July afternoon.

MIDDLETON will welcome two key players back as they bid to break a long losing spell when Radcliffe visit Towncroft on Saturday. Scott Stanworth will be back behind the stumps after recovering from a broken finger which has sidelined him for the past six weeks and also to the top of the batting order. Also back is professional Werner Coetsee who has missed most of July after being called up into the South Africa side which competed in the Emerging Players tournament in Australia. The Proteas finished joint-third in the tournament, won by New Zealand, after their play-off game against India was washed out.