Weather scuppers 1stXI's hope of victory

Widnes CC vs Hyde away 11/05/2019
Widnes CC travelled the long distance to the edge of the peak district to play their premier division game against Hyde CC, they arrived to find a wicket that was saturated at just one end meaning the outcome of the coin toss would be vital, unfortunately the coin landed on the wrong side for captain Tom Evans and Widnes were asked to bat first.
Chris kirby opened the batting with James McCoy hoping to avoid any early hiccups in the tricky conditions, the Hyde opening bowlers Hannah and Whittaker were particularly frugal in the early overs and then struck claiming the wicket of McCoy in the 8th over when the score was on 16 runs being caught of the bowling of Whittaker, Sean Moore then came to the crease and with Kirby moved the score onto 22 runs in the 11th over unfortunately Moore was then caught behind off Hannah’s bowling for 5 runs, Matt Burns then went to the middle to join Kirby but as he reached the crease a torrential downpour hit the ground and the players had the leave the pitch, once the rain had stopped play resumed for just one over when an even greater deluge of rain and hailstones hit the ground, this caused a substantial delay whilst an early tea was taken to utilise the time spent trying to dry the ground, the time lost meant the game had become a 92 over game, meaning if Widnes batted their full allocation of 55 overs Hyde would be left with 37 to achieve the target. Kirby and Burns set about keeping the Hyde bowlers at bay whilst coping with the tricky ground conditions, they did this admirably and once the conditions improved started to take the attack to the Hyde bowlers they had put on 77 runs in 27 overs when Burns was bowled having scored 46 runs off 87 balls including 4 fours and 2 sixes, this brought Shahbaz Bashir to join Kirby, at this point Widnes thought they were in a good position to push on to a 200 run total whilst also batting their full 55 overs, the team total had now reached 107 unfortunately Kirby was caught off Crammer’s bowling having scored 37 runs off 112 balls containing 3 fours and 1 six, Majid Majeed joined Bashir but soon had to depart scoring 2 runs before being caught, Johnathan Campbell joined Bashir and scored 13 runs before being caught on 13 runs with the total now on 143 for 6 wickets, the wickets toll soon reached 7 when Alex Hewitt departed without scoring, Widnes’s ambitions of reaching the 200 mark and batting their 55 overs seemed to be disappearing into the now cloudless sky, especially when Bashir was caught and bowled having scored 25 runs from 25 balls, Widnes were now 147/8 in the 46th over, with Qamar Hafiz and Aaron Soni in the middle the total moved onto 153 when Soni was caught having scored 2 runs, captain Tom Evans joined Hafiz with the unenvious task of trying to bat till 55 overs, this pair managed to reach 167 runs in the 51st over until Evans was adjudged to be LBW. Hyde now had to score 168 runs in 41 overs
Hyde’s captain Partridge opened with L Young facing the Widnes opening attack of Qamar Hafiz and Aaron Soni, unfortunately though the ground conditions had continued to improve, this pair batted their way to 35 runs whilst Soni was replaced by Majeed who struck in his second over having partridge caught by Bashir for 20 runs, Balderson joined L Young and the total had moved on 1 run when L Young was stumped by Kirby in Majeed’s next over, E Young now joined Balderson and the total moved onto 54 in the 16th over when Balderson was caught behind from Hafiz’s bowling for 10 runs Fisher now joined E Young, Widnes kept their bowling tight but could not get the breakthrough they needed, it took until the 37th over for Sean Moore to strike having Fisher caught by Hewitt for 29 runs Allcock joined E Young and no more wickets fell Hyde reached the required total in 36.2 overs. Hafiz took 1 wicket, Majeed 2 wickets & Moore 1 wicket.
Widnes will count themselves unlucky in losing the toss and having to cope with the worst of the conditions which frustratingly improved as the day went on, this coming Saturday see’s the 1st XI travel to Alderley Edge for a 12.30 start.