2XI – TITLE DEFENCE UNDERWAY

Wednesday April 29th 2009 | Cricket

Prestwich 2XI travelled to Woodhouses to start the defence of their championship title on Saturday. Woodhouses are always one of the top sides in the second division so this was always going to be a tough encounter.

Winning the toss Andy Bradley decided to let Woodhouses bat first on the early season strip. John Walters and Pete Lorenzini opened the bowling and Walters removed ‘Houses skipper Akin with the score on 40, thereafter for much of the innings the scoring rate was comparatively slow when you consider that Medlock Road is a traditionally high scoring ground.

Nick Carter’s six overs cost just ten runs, including four maidens. There was only one main contributor to the scoreboard – Kingham, having not played for nearly 10 years announced his return with a fighting 85 not out, but the re-introduction of Walters, and a couple of run out’s by the ‘evergreen’ Jon O’Connor meant that the home side were restricted to just 201-9 from their 50 overs – Walters the star turn with 5-60 from 20 overs.

The Prestwich reply was built around a stalwart knock of 82 not out from John Fiorentini, the Nasser Hussain look-alike facing 157 balls during his 163-minute occupation. Good contributions from Luke O’Brien (31) Dave Taylor (20) and Sam Holden (19) almost saw Prestwich across the finishing line, but a late wobble meant that it was left up to that man Walters to knock off the winning runs with just 5 balls remaining in the innings.

In the end a good win for the Second string, picking up 4 points away from home. They will be looking to build on that good start when they face Thornham at The Heys this Saturday.