Newcastle & Hartshill vs Longton.
Newcastle & Hartshill won by 9 wickets.
As the season continues to fly by, match-day 13 of the season takes me to The Potteries Oval for Newcastle & Harshill’s home fixture against Longton.
The home side suffered a narrow 3-wicket defeat to Eccleshall last week, which has dropped them down to 8th in the table. They’ve had a very mixed season so far with 6 wins, 5 defeats and a draw. Longton, on the other hand are enduring a tough season. Their only league victory came against Porthill early on in the season. They’ve lost 9 matches in a row in the league since then, and they desperately need a quick turnaround in fortunes if they’re to beat the drop. They did, however, secure a confidence-boosting victory over Rode Park & Lawton in the Talbot Cup on Sunday, which can give them some hope.
Castle did secure a narrow three-wicket victory when the two sides met earlier in the season, and will be keen for a repeat victory this afternoon.
Longton won the toss and elected to bat in overcast conditions. There was a minute’s silence to honour the late great Garry Sobers before play began.
Theo Abel found some extra bounce with the new ball in the 2nd over, and the ball caught the shoulder of Andrew Coxon’s bat. It flew past Mohammed Ishtiaq at 1st slip and ran away to the third man boundary. Coxon whipped a full toss through mid-wicket in the 4th over before driving crisply through the covers for his 3rd boundary of the afternoon. Matheesa Perera drove Joe Thorne away to the point boundary in the 5th over as Longton moved to 20/0 after 5 overs.
Perera cut a short and wide delivery from Abel to the boundary in the next over as the visitors’ good start continued. Abel then removed Perera later in the over when he again found some extra bounce from a good length. Perera tried to remove his bat at the last second, but he could only present Ryan Hassett with a simple catch to leave Longton 25/1. Michael Dyer flashed at a wide delivery from Thorne in the following over. He got a healthy edge, and the ball flew high over the slips and away to the boundary. Coxon drove Thorne handsomely through extra cover for his 4th boundary in the 9th over to take the score to 36/1.
The home side then took two quick wickets. Dyer miscued an attempted pull high in the air, and Mo Rameez took a good catch under the high ball at square leg. Dane Tinsley then chipped tamely to Rameez at mid-wicket, where he took a simple catch this time to give Thorne his first wicket of the afternoon and leave Longton in trouble at 37/3. Coxon continued to show positive intent as he drove Abel through the covers for his 5th boundary in the 12th over as he moved nicely to 24*.
Rameez struck immediately when he was brought into the attack in the 14th over. Coxon went back and was trapped leg before as Longton fell to 41/4. Kasun Ekayanaka then trapped Alex Thorley LBW in the next over as the Longton collapse continued. Both batters didn’t look impressed with their decisions, but they had to go, and Longton had now fallen from 36/1 to 41/5 in just 25 balls as the home side’s bowlers took a firm grip on the game.
Nalin Priyadarshan drove Rameez through the covers for a welcome boundary in the next over before Antonio Alles flicked a full toss through the mid-wicket and away to the boundary in the following over to move the score to 51/5. Left-handed Alles was bowled by a big spinning leg-break from Rameez in the 20th over. He attempted a cut, and the ball spun back sharply and hit the top of the off stump to leave Longton 6 down with only 58 on the board.
Ewan Farnell guided Rameez through gully and away to the boundary to move the score to 70/6 after 22 overs. He found the boundary again in the 25th over when he worked a ball from Ekayanaka behind square to move the score to 83/6. Farnell’s innings was then ended in the next over when he chipped a full toss to mid-wicket to give Rameez his 3rd wicket. The 7th wicket partnership was just beginning to find its feet, and he’ll be very disappointed in the way he got out. With the fall of the wicket, drinks came onto the field with the score 84/7. Longton will need to squeeze as many runs as they can out of their remaining three wickets if they’re going to set a competitive total.
It took 8 balls for the home side to wrap up the innings after the drinks break. A quicker ball from Rameez trapped Abdul Basit leg before with the remaining ball of his uncompleted over. Ekayanaka picked up his second wicket in the following over when he trapped Thomas Mack leg before. Alfie Rigdeway was then nearly run out before Priyadarshan struck the final ball straight down the ground for a boundary. Rameez claimed his 5th wicket and also his hat-trick when he bowled Ridgeway with the first ball of the next over. The leg-spinner finished with outstanding figures of 5/25 from 7.1 overs as Longton subsided to just 92 all out. It had been a fine effort from the home side’s bowlers, and they had the chance to secure a comfortable victory after the tea break.
Rohan Vallabhaneni started the chase in positive fashion when he smacked the first ball from Priyadarshan to the mid-wicket boundary. Hassett timed the final ball of the over sweetly through the covers for another boundary. Vallabhaneni smashed a Perera full toss to the mid-wicket fence in the second over as he continued to be positive. Hassett launched Perera down the ground for a mighty six in the 6th over to move the score to 28/0. An incredible 30 runs came from the next over, bowled by Priyadarshan. The first ball beat keeper Coxon and ran away for four byes. Vallabhaneni smashed the 2nd ball for an enormous six over mid-wicket before he advanced down the pitch and struck the next ball over long on for the 2nd six of the over, he then slog swept the next ball through mid-wicket for another boundary. The 5th ball was smashed down the ground for another six before he struck the final ball through cow corner to round off a remarkable over.
He went to his 50 in the 9th over when he struck Dyer over long on for his 4th six of the afternoon. It had taken him only 29 balls to get there, and he’d struck five fours to go along with his four maximums. His fine innings was ended when Perera trapped him LBW for 58 in the next over. Hassett struck the final ball of the over for 6 over long off as the score continued to race along. He finished the match in style two overs later with a sweep to the deep square leg fence before he won the match with a glorious straight six. Castle chased their total down in just 13.3 overs as they were as dominant with the bat as they were with the ball. It had been an excellent all-round team performance by the home side as they secured their 7th victory of the season.
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