2009-06-13

Foreman Puts Stretton on the Matt

Stretton 163 all out, Lindow 167 for 3

Lindow (25pts) beat Stretton (10) by 7 wickets

Lindow took advantage of ideal batting conditions to overpower Stretton and consolidate their position as league front-runners.

The home side won the toss and predictably opted to bat in the sunny conditions, taking first use of a hard and true pitch. But they got more than they bargained for as the extra pace of Lindow’s attack, backed-up well in the field, restricted the scoring to 2 per over in the first third of the innings. However, despite the early loss of Green to a nick behind off Grover for 1, Stretton did keep wickets in hand as they struggled to stay in the game. Opener M. Critchley got the game moving to some degree, with particularly powerful driving, but a stand of 58 in 17 overs was finally ended by Law (2 for 36) when Hill (13) was caught by Grover. Critchley was trapped LBW by Law’s slower ball for 60 with the score at 82 and a gradual procession began, triggered by Andy Hume’s quickfire 3 for 21 and the metronomically accurate Grover’s 3 for 62, which reduced the home side to 113 for 8 after 33 overs. But then Lindow lost the plot, as a preoccupation with increasing the over rate combined with an effective counter-attack from Stretton number 10 Flanagan unsettled the visitor’s focus. Two straightforward chances were dropped as 50 were added in 9 overs before home ‘keeper Lyons (13) was finally run out and Matt Bradshaw (1 for 35) finally took some reward for his efforts by trapping the last man in front to end proceedings with the score at 163. Flanagan finished unbeaten on 32 for Stretton.

Lindow’s reply began with an early hiccup when Adam Clarke (1) was caught in two minds and popped up a simple chance to the bowler, Clissold. But Jav Huq (36) played freely and Stretton’s bowlers were quickly on the back foot as 56 were added with Dave Foreman in just 10 overs. When Huq was adjudged to have nicked one behind off S. Critchley (1 for 45), Foreman was joined by Matty Law who chose to bat with the new Mongoose bat which, to the consternation of the old-school, has no splice and a slightly shorter blade than normal. Anyway, it seemed to work well enough as Law stroked his way to a first half-century for Lindow, putting the hapless home bowlers to the sword in partnership with Foreman, adding 96 together in 19 overs to take the visitors to the brink of victory. Law finally drove one uppishly to mid-off to be caught for 52 (7x4), but Foreman finished the game off in style and walked off the field unbeaten with 71 (10x4) to his name, 16 overs unused and 25 points in the bag for Lindow to extend its lead at the top of the table.

So, unbeaten since the first day of the season and with 4 straight wins under their belt, a momentum seems to be gathering such as has not been seen at Lindow in some time. However, with a long way still to go Lindow will need to keep improving to turn this promising early season form into tangible rewards at the end of the season.