Cheshire County Cricket League Division 2
Ashton on Mersey CC 1st XI 91 all out
Lost to
Haslington CC 1st XI 207-9
Image: Fraser Hay bowls
Ashton on Mersey slumped to a heavy defeat at home to Haslington, as they failed to capitalise on a fine start to the match.
Bowling first on a track offering some help to the seamers, Ashton had Haslington in all sorts of trouble as Fraser Hay and James Marshall ran through the top order.
With spinner Zaheer Khan posing more problems to the visitors, Ashton reduced Haslington to 83-8. But hopes of bundling out the visitors for a modest total were dashed by the excellent Ben Instead, who batted with calm excellence to rescue the batting effort.
With support from the gritty Stephen Davies, Istead gave a batting masterclass to take the game away from a flagging Ashton attack.
Instead fell just short of what would have been a well-deserved century, finishing on 96 not out having guided his team to 207-9 off their 50 overs.
Marshall returned figures of 3-28 but the Ashton team seemed shellshocked by their failure to finish off the Haslington batting effort when they had the chance.
In reply some bright cricket up front by openers Jamal Benzafar and Macca Hooton was snuffed out by two successful shouts for lbw. The rest of the batting failed to come to terms with the tight Haslington bowling and despite some late order hitting by Marshall (38), the home side slumped to a modest 91 all out. Tom Gledhill posted figures of 3-13 with Imran Khan returning 3-27.
This was a disappointing game for Ashton, although the excellence of Istead needs to be acknowledged as the main reason for the loss.
The Ashton 2nd XI lost a thrilling encounter away at Haslington. Ashton 172 all out (Lee Heap 59, Saeed Bhamjee 50, Joe Cork 4-40, Callum Istead 3-27) Haslington 173-9 (Will Dale 48, Kristian Green 3-30, Yousuf Bhamjee 3-48).
Image: James Marshall bats
