With the first team game cancelled by Maritime due to a waterlogged pitch, all eyes were on Wilmslow second team this Saturday and they responded well with an emphatic win on their first game of the season.
Playing at home after a postponement in week 1, the squirrels were put in to bat on a green seamer. The groundsmen have done a fantastic job in getting the pitches ready for this season and this game was testament to that with over 300 runs scored on the surface after a washout on Friday.
The surface required application and patience from the top order batsmen as the surface dried out. Some excellent straight bat work from Tom Rowe (58*) and John Edwards 30 set a great platform for the innings. As is often the case with wickets in hand and a frustrated bowling attack, the run rate starts to accelerate and the introduction of Lloyd Sykes made sure of that. An explosive 86 from the number 3 elevated Wilmslow to the 180 with time to spare. Waqar Malik then came in to hit some clean strikes and reach the 200 mark and an early declaration.
After tea the hosts set about bowling. A fantastic first ball from Oli Warner set them on their way with the removal of Mody. After this though Coad and Porthouse began to construct a solid partnership as the pitch dried out and the sun began to shine. Tight spells from all the bowlers (I.Ashraf 2-19, Warner 1-18, Faisal 1-22) ensured run rate never got out of hand but the wickets were hard to come by. An important strike from Imran Ashraf removed Porthouse to give the defense some momentum.
After tea the introduction Ward and Pickup proved important. Pickup took a wicket from his 5 overs and bowled with good pace while Ward, in his first bowling appearance since 2016, came on to claim 5 wickets in his 7.2 over spell, finishing with figures of 5-17 and see Wilmslow over the line.
The seconds now head to table topping Ashley 2nds on Saturday and can look forward to a good contest.
Match report by Toby Ward.
