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Too hot for Stretford to handle

16/ 5/2008

Whalley Range 157-7, Stretford 156 - Whalley Range moved a step nearer to securing a Manchester Association Surridge Cup semi-final spot as ‘Fortress Range’ proved to be too hot for visitors Stretford to handle.

Tidy bowling by Waqas Mailk 2-27, Saleem Akram 3-20 and skipper Paul Davies 2-27 kept the visitors in check as only Andy Crowhurst 44 and Chris Barlow 20 offered much threat to the Range attack as they were dismissed for a modest 156.

Alan Mellor 18 and Zarrar Malik 38 gave Range a solid foundation but the middle order disappeared apart from Farhan Ahmed 26, leaving them crumbling at 124-7.

Then Aftab Younas 34 not out found valuable support in Saleem Akram as they steered their team home in the penultimate over without further loss.

Winton 203-7, Wythenshawe 190-9 - Wythenshawe look to have blown their chances of further progress in the competition after a defeat at Winton.

Leigh Sproston 3-52, and Paul Burrell 2-21 were the pick of the home attack as the home team amassed a useful 203 target.

Burrell than showed his all-round qualities with a top score of 45 in the Wythenshawe reply.

Chris Canning added 31 and Ian Habershon 27 but they were never up with the required rate finishing 14 runs short of victory.

But Wythenshawe seconds kept up their winning ways in a thrilling seven-run win over Winton at Longley Lane.

Wythenshawe struggled on a green-top in the early stages slumping to 59-6.

Richard Robinson was the pick of the top order with 28 then it needed a good team effort from Colin Pierce 12, Chris Bradley 17 and Abdullah Kamel 40 to take them to a more respectable 145.

Winton also found it hard as they were reduced to 66-6 but then some defiant batting set the home team alarm bells ringing.

Lewis Crowther 2-20, Ian Hilton 3-22, Chris Bradley 2-24 and Colin Pierce 2-23 just about did enough to keep them in check as they finished on 138-9.

Sale 273-2, Bredbury St Marks 182-8 (Match drawn) - After winning the toss and batting first, Sale ran up a huge total of 273-2 against Bredbury on Saturday but could not force a win and had to settle for a 16 points draw.

Sale’s innings was marked by a magnificent unbeaten knock of 126 by 18-year-old Dan Halkon. Showing remarkable maturity and concentration, as well as an impressive range of strokeplay, he batted throughout the 50 overs and three hours of the Sale innings, hitting 20 boundaries from 142 balls.

At the 50 overs declaration Halkon had reached 126 and became the second batsman this season to hold his bat throughout the Sale innings.

On a good batting track it was always going to be difficult to bowl out the opposition but skipper Mike Halkon made a promising start when he took two early wickets. Opener Carr looked in ominous form but he fell one short of his half-century to a catch by wicketkeeper King off Lee.

Bredbury saw out the innings at 182 for 8.

Sale’s 2nd XI made it four wins out of four in their game against second-placed Bredbury at Sale to set the pace in their Division, Jamal Benzafar’s 89 being the highlight.