After last weeks impressive victory over Bunbury, Wilmslow made the long trip to Old Parkonians in search of another victory. There were 3 changes to the side that won last week, with Captain Toby and his Vice Adam unavailable, whilst Shiva dropped down into the 2’s due to injury. This meant like the opening day, Steve Fulker captained the side. However due to heavy traffic Fulker was absent at the toss, meaning Sykes stood in at the toss and he elected to bat on a wicket which looked perfect to bat on.
Jegs and Sykes headed out to the middle in the heat, and hit early boundaries, one from Jegs and two from Sykes as the openers loose deliveries were punished early. Sykes was then unfortunate to find himself on the way back to the pavilion for just 9. Flannagan overpitching, and Sykes looked to repeat the cover drive which ended last weeks game. He timed it perfectly, with the ball no more than a foot of the floor, and the rest of the team were already looking to the boundary. However, a spectacular diving catch from Nelson meant Sykes was on his way. Jegs fell shortly after for just 4. He too looked to attack a full delivery, but he was only able to chip the ball into the hands of D.Berkson.
From here the Wilmslow innings never got going, and all credit must go to the bowlers who consistently hit the right line and length. Ganesh and Ciril managed to spend a period of time at the crease, however they both snicked off to some fine bowling and fell for 6 and 8. Eland and Pranay both looked to attack but also fell quickly, and when Warner was caught for a duck, Wilmslow were in massive trouble at 45-7.
Up stepped G who batted tremendously and showed great patience. Whilst the majority if his best performances so far for Wilmslow have come with the ball, this week he stood out with the bat, scoring 27 from 72 balls. Whilst not the greatest of strike rates, he occupied the crease for a significant period, and helped get the score up to 93 before being the last wicket to fall. Credit must also go to Vipin, who on 1st XI debut scored 2 off 23 but occupied the crease alongside G. Steve Fulker also hit a quick 14 after eventually arriving, having taken him over 3 hours to arrive from Wilmslow.
93 was always going to be a tough score to defend, however the Squirrels went out into the field in high hopes after last week’s impressive performance with the ball. They got off to the perfect start with Amal taking a wicket with his first ball of the day. A fine in swinger, which left the opener playing his shot in a different postcode as the ball clattered into his stumps. That quickly became 2 down, as Amal picked up another wicket, once again bowled. Jegs was unlucky to not pick up a wicket himself after a tough chance behind the stumps went down. This wouldn’t be the only drop of the day and it would eventually prove costly for Wilmslow.
All the Wilmslow bowlers performed admirably. Sykes once again bowling extremely tight, and created lots of chances, picking up 1-30 from his 11 overs. Ganesh also bowled superbly and collected 3-18 off his 11 overs. Both the pair could have finished with more wickets each had chances been taken. G rounded off his fine performance with 2-9 off 4.4 overs, but Old Parks secured the win off 42.4 overs 8 wickets down. A performance the bowlers could be proud of. On a different day, with 20 more runs on the board, and if chances were taken Wilmslow would have been making the journey home with the win.
Credit must go the Old Parks, who in a key difference between the sides took every catch that made it to hand. The result leaves Wilmslow in 8th place after 5 games and 45 points.
This week the 1’s are in cup action on Thursday, away against Cheadle Hulme Ladybridge, whilst on Saturday they welcome Weaverham to Rectory Fields.
