Accrington 187, Rawtenstall 142

The morning rain fell hard on Accrington on a muggy Bank Holiday morning and with the pitch left uncovered, it soon left its mark. The pitch resembled something like New Orleans minus the hurricane and the looting (not much you can do with a set of stumps and bails although A.C.C’s residential gypsies might think differently!). Luckily the cavalry was at hand to do some mopping up and improvised draining and drying. Just as soon as the rain came and went the sun decided to pop out. A 2 o'clock start and 40 over game was the order of the day by those often misunderstood and mysterious men in white coats (and no Immy I'm not talking about doctors).

Hats off to Saggy

I lost the toss and was asked to bat on a soft and soggy wicket and within 5 overs of our innings both Ian and Ormy were back in the dressing room leaving the score at 20-2. Ormy left his unfinished chips unattended in the changing rooms so perhaps was distracted whilst he was batting.  Matty D in partnership with Saggy steadied the ‘ship’ and took the score to 70 before the former was out for a gritty 11. Little Matty and not so little Johnny accompanied saggy for a few overs each before both were out. Our score stood at a fragile 110-5 with saggy still at the crease on 60. I went out and came back quite quickly, run out thanks to Saggys ridiculous call for a 3. While being run out I gently ‘informed’ Saggy to bat through the overs otherwise face loosing you collection for the 50 to the gypsies. Eventually we ended up getting 187 all out off 32 overs and Saggy scored 105.

Well what can I say about young ‘Sachin’ innings? one day I pray that your IQ will catch up to the score you got, no matter how big a jump that may be!. Joking aside his innings was noted for its pulls, leg side flicks and heaves and his straight driving. For a talent as prodigious and temperamental as Saggy I must say his hundred was not a question of if but when. More often than not his mouth is normally more consistent than his batting but on this occasion his batting shone through (even more so since the next highest score was 11!). Oh yeah almost forgot somebody wearing a Lancashire tracksuit top was sighted in Timbuktu and then in Greenland…apparently that person sleeps in the top as well.

Rawtenstall got off to a quick start and were 44-0 off the first 8 overs before Saggy (2-12) and myself (2-25) wrestled control back with our bowling reducing them to 70-4. The rest of the team chipped in with wickets as well with Matty D (2-6) Matty S (2-26) and D Stubbs (1-36) all contributing. In the field it was truly a team effort but in the batting it was a one man demolition job. Rawtenstall 142 all out  and a welcome 5 points for Accy.