12 July 2008, Lindow CC 1st XI vs. Wistaston Village (a)
Lindow Lost Despite Atlas
Wistaston Village 102 all out, Lindow 87 all out
Lindow (5pts) lost to Wistaston Village (25) by 15 runs
Despite a superhuman performance from Andy Hume, Lindow squandered a winning opportunity against relegation rivals Wistaston in a low scoring game.
Wistaston won the toss and batted, preferring first use of a troublesome surface that Andy Hume and Homi Masud found very much to their liking. Home batsmen came and went in rapid succession on the way to 38 for 7 as only Barnes (21) of the top order made any real fist of it. But home skipper Townsend (20) and the lower order found sufficient grit and nouse to nudge the score up past the ton, as Allwood posted 22 and Ogben slogged an unbeaten 18 at the death. Lindow could, and perhaps should, have wrapped things up earlier as four catches were spilled in the slips and at gully, though none were easy. Hume produced figures of 5 for 65 from his 17 overs, while Masud produced his most threatening spell of the season to pick up 5 for 29.
With only 102 to chase, Lindow were confident of victory though a few scares were expected given the nature of the pitch. What actually happened was carnage as the difficult pitch combined with determined bowling to destroy the visitor’s batting. However, with a couple of exceptions, every wicket was earned by the excellent Ogben and opening partner Thornhill, as accuracy and movement combined to dismiss batsmen who, for the most part, were simply trying to defend their way responsibly into the game. Only at 38 for 8 did the visitors get a toehold in the game, as Andy Hume tried to drag Lindow to victory in tandem with an unusually subdued Alex Taylor (8). Together, these two added a priceless 36 before Taylor yielded to temptation and was caught trying to hit the spin of Walsh over the half-way back mid-off. Even then last man Masud joined Hume in creeping the score to the point where a tense finish seemed assures and Wistaston felt the need to bring back the tired opening attack. Ogben did the trick, subjecting Masud to another in a sequence of highly debatable LBW decisions this season, as the Lindow fightback was sawn off 15 runs short, with the admirable Hume unbeaten on 45. Ogben finished with 5 wickets and Thornhill 4 as Wistaston took the spoils and swapped places with Lindow in the table.
Lindow, meanwhile, are stuck in relegation form at the moment and must get out of it very quickly to salvage anything from the season.
