Winnington Park Cricket Club
Winnington Impress With The Bat to Progress to The Next Round
After all the torrential rain that was witnessed over Northwich, Winnington found themselves pleasantly surprised to see clear skies and a relatively dry ground at Frodsham. After a comprehensive defeat at the weekend the team were keen to bounce back and went into the game in confident mood with more well-established players returning. With a bumper crowd from the away side which was the envy of the Frodsham manager a good performance was expected. Captain Sam Hill won the toss and with the blessing of his team elected to bowl first.
The returning Metzinger took the new ball and despite some uncharacteristic wayward bowling was an instant success removing McCarthor clean bowled. Millington started right on the money at the other end and his pace was too much for the Frodsham openers and he started with a wicket maiden. Over the next couple of overs Winnington’s ground fielding was put to the test as the batsmen attempted a few quick singles. This resulted in 3 run outs with Corradine doing some smart work on debut to link up with Speak for 2 run outs and then a tidy throw from Nevin provided the 3rd to really put Winnington in pole position. After some early yips Metzinger had really got into his stride and in his 3rd over the new pair had decided to play him back and avoid losing any more wickets which resulted in a maiden leaving Frodsham struggling on 10-5. However the rest of the game would see Winnington bowl well below what they were capable of and with the NCJCA rules of 2 runs for a wide they were really punished. Cobley bowled well except a couple of lose deliveries but couldn’t find the breakthrough so the ball was handed to U10 Sam Barnes who didn’t let the age factor intimidate him and returned figures of 2-5 off 2 overs with two wickets including a good catch at mid-wicket by Metzinger. The captain was brought on for the final 3 overs but struggled with the wind and was not his usual dangerous self and conceded 10 runs through wides in his first over but settled down to bowl a good 2nd and 3rd over. With Room struggling to find his line Nevin was handed the ball and he bowled a superb double wicket maiden which was important in giving Winnington a much more modest total to face.
Bowling Figures
(overs-maidens-runs-wickets)
Metzinger 4-1-12-1
Millington 4-1-10-1
Cobley 3-0-8-0
Beddard 1-0-5-0
Barnes 2-1-5-2
Hill 3-0-19-0
Room 1-0-11-0
Nevin 2-1-6-2
There were many positives to take from the first half display but in reality it was one of their poorest bowling performances that gifted Frodsham 59 extras. Had Winnington bowled no wides or no balls they would have been chasing –27, as it happened they needed to pass 32 for victory.
The familiar opening partnership of Millington and Nevin were put under immediate pressure from Wright and Rogers who both bowled good lines and it was Rogers who got the breakthrough with a peach of a Yorker bowling Nevin. However this seemed to spring the batsmen into life and Millington hit the next two balls for four including a smashed cut shot that was still travelling at full pace as it raced over the boundary. Nevin then got in the action with his own boundary and a good single with a straight drive. After more Millington boundaries and good support from Nevin Winnington were on 26-1 off the first 4. This meant sensible batting was needed from youngster Room and debutant Corradine and that is exactly what they delivered. Room was tidy and added a nice cut for four to the total and Corradine played some nice drives which he was unlucky not to get more runs for. Some wayward bowling meant they did not get too many scoring chances but they batted sensibly to add another 25 to the total for the loss of just one wicket. This put Winnington in the lead but Beddard and Metzinger were keen to build. They then showed they are starting to build a good understanding at the crease and went about running quick singles but this also brought a wicket as Metzinger failed to ground his bat when he would have been well inside his ground. Beddard was stumped soon after but apart from that it was an impressive partnership with each contributing boundaries and Metzinger having arguably his best game at the crease. A tactical decision from Wales to put the hard hitting of Cobley and Barnes in 4th pair to take advantage of the weaker bowlers proved to be a good one with Cobley bringing his usual fireworks hitting two large sixes over mid-wicket. At the other end Barnes was playing some fantastic cricket bringing out a range of shots, but both of them need to work on staying in their ground as between them there were 3 stumpings thanks to some excellent wicket keeping. Cobley (16) and Barnes (25) put the game beyond any doubt in an excellent partnership of 50! With the strong pair of Speak and Hill coming in last Winnington were well on their way to building a huge score. Speak was in no mood to hang around and the first over went for 16 thanks largely to his 3 boundaries including shot of the day: a perfect straight drive missing the stumps by inches on the leg-side. Hill was unlucky to be deprived of strike for most of the innings but did add 3 accomplished singles all with excellent cricket shots which was good to see. Speak carried on his hard hitting to the end to amass 18 runs for his total. Winnington finished on an impressive 157-8 which gave them a 93 run victory and a place in the next round against either Rylands or Lymm OP.
Batting Card
(runs-wickets)
Millington 18*
Nevin 6-1
Room 4*
Corradine 1-1
Beddard 7-1
Metzinger 8-1
Cobley 16-2
Barnes 25-1
Speak 18-1
Hill 3*
After the game Wales said “It was a pleasure to watch their second half performance. We still have a lot to work on if we are
going to beat the top sides but shot selection and execution was second to none
tonight, I cannot fault any of them. I
am going to forget the bowling performance this week, I think all the lads know
we can perform a lot better than we did.
Having said that not many teams will be able to boast a 93 run victory
this season so the lads should enjoy what they have achieved. Well done!”
Captain Hill added “We were really good!”