4ths Just Undercooked in the Heatwave!
2 min read
Saturday past saw Bangor welcome Victoria 3s to Upritchard Park at the end of an extremely hot and dry week. The heat left the ground lightning fast and the ball but the pitch still had a healthy green top to it for the bowlers to work with. Bangor won the toss and put the visitors in with the rapid Morgan Paulin and Andy Hare opening the attack with Victoria starting with a degree of caution against some tidy bowling early on. Both batmen riding their luck on a couple of occasions with some up-ish strokes to fielders in the circle. Hare made the initial breakthrough clipping the top of Boomer’s middle stump in the sixth over with the score on 25. The captain bowled his spell straight through for just 11 runs. Stephen Cumper and James Nuttall entered the attack trying to keep Greene and Greenway in check, the former starting to open up and play more freely. Cumper managed to sneak one through Greenway’s defences in the 14th over, Victoria having pushed on to 69. The arrival of Stirling gave the visitors plenty of impetus, moving into the 30s with a series of powerfully struck boundaries, while Greene playing some truly classy strokes at the other end as he pushed on towards his half century. One particular highlight for Bangor was the return of all-rounder Neil Bates after three seasons out of action who toiled hard to remove Greene (63) with a superb return catch at the second opportunity. Victoria finished the innings on 174 thanks to Stirling’s continued aggressive play.
Owen Aicken and Paulin began the chase with the former showing his worth at the top of the order. Paulin was the first to go misjudging one that dragged back onto the stumps without scoring. A brief flurry from Carter McCormack (5) before falling to S. Irwin for his second wicket brought the every enterprising Muhammad Moazzam to the crease. The Bangor batsmen ticking the score over with quick footed running and well placed shots. Aicken showed good leg side touch and Moazzam his power with a flurry of strongly hit boundaries, the best of them a towering six off Greene to end an 18 run over giving Bangor a much needed lift to the scoring to put the pressure back on Victoria. The introduction of Stirling proved decisive quickly dismissing Aicken (27) and Bates in his first over. Tom Irwin looked to be typically aggressive and on another day his well hit shots would have found the gaps and raced to the rope. Stirling continued to dent Bangor’s chase with a further four wickets as the batsmen sought to keep up the chase. The last wicket pair of Nuttall (16) and Cumper (17) pulled Bangor within touching distance both striking a series of clean blows, but alas 13 runsshort in the end.
