An assured knock of 76* by Ben Wright steers Didsbury to victory after Hannah Jones and Haris Umair spark a monumental collapse to bring Chelford’s innings to a premature end.

After winning the toss on a deck tinged with green and overcast skies, Didsbury’s asked Chelford to bat. Rehmani bowled accurately and with a hint of swing couldn’t entice an edge from either batsman. Zeman looked assured for Chelford building on the good form he has shown this season with elegant straight drives and punishing anything short of a length. Andrew Jones made the first breakthrough with a ball hitting the top of the off stump. And then struck again enticing an edge which Dan Hinkely did his best to drop but luckily JP was on hand to smoother the rebound in the crook of his elbow.

Chelford had made relatively untroubled progress against our seamers and after 20 overs Haris was called upon and found excellent turn and bounce. He enticed captain Mohammed Irfan down the track and JP obliged with the stumping. At 155-3 Chelford looked well set for a big score and the decision to bowl first didn’t look the smartest.
Hannah replaced Alex Bennett at the other end and the collapse was on. Zeman, dropped off Hannah’s first ball, missed a straight one and departed for 98. Some dubious shots followed from the rest of the Chelford batsman. Andy Jones took an excellent catch at backward Doyle point and Hannah picked up the last wicket with a one handed falling catch by Ben Wright at short cover. The last 7 wickets fell for 10 runs with Hannah finishing with 3 and Haris 4 wickets. We also had 3 extra overs to chase down 166.

Ben Anderson and Trystan George opened our innings and progressed to 31 before Ben nicked one to slip for 9. Tristan followed relatively soon after in the same manner for 18 bringing JP to the crease who couldn’t replicate his early season form missed a straight one for 9. At 51-3 Stew Green and Ben Wright set about rebuilding the innings and took us up to 98 at drinks but Stew departed first ball after drinks for 17 and Dan Hinkley later in the same over leaving us 98-5. Andy Jones and Ben played cautiously against their spinner Rafiq noting the earlier demolition job by our spinners.

As Chelford searched for wickets, they rotated their bowlers and then brought back their openers to try and prize out the wickets needed to win the game. Unfortunately Andy was caught at backward square leg for 20 bringing Hannah to the wicket with 15 needed off 3 overs. Common sense was all that was needed now and the strike was rotated before Ben launched a 6 over square leg to ease the tension.

A 20 point win sees us close the gap on Chelford and enables Disley to take top spot in our division. All 3 teams at the top are within 10 points of each other. Next weekend, on Canada Day (July 1st) sees the half-way mark in the season with Didsbury hosting Brooklands at DSG.