2nd XI - Batsmen have a Waile of a Time
 

Morpeth faced a short trip to Cowgate on Saturday with a couple of comprehensive wins under their belts in recent weeks and the sun shining down on a balmy summers day. They arrived to find a damp square, due to a lack of covers, and the Cowgate skipper rolling the wicket furiously! The efforts proved fruitful as the couple of wet patches were quickly covered up and the game got underway on time, with Morpeth captain Maxted losing the toss and being inserted on a soft and green wicket.

The anticipated seam movement was there from early on for the Cowgate opening pair of Latif and Crawford. The Morpeth opening pair of Wailes and Cowell knuckled down and tried to avoid the good balls around off stump. Latif in particular was bowling with great control and no shortage of away cutters to beat the opening pairs outside edge. It wasn’t long before Wailes was up and running, with a delicate flick to the fine leg boundary followed by a rasping cut shot to the offside fence.

The opening pair were accumulating runs quietly and had amassed 46 by the end of the tenth over, with Cowell being the silent partner, but making sure plenty of quick singles and hard run twos were being acquired. A trademark pull to the legside off Ahmed brought Wailes to a well deserved fifty and the opening partnership was powering on and making the Cowgate batsmen suffer in the mid afternoon sunshine.

The introduction of off-spinner Alished was to Cowell’s liking as he dispatched a couple of deliveries to the leg side boundary, including one large heave for six. The Morpeth opening pair had now registered a century opening stand, and the Cowgate captain, Ali, must have been ruing his decision to insert Morpeth.

Wailes was continuing to look particularly unflustered in stroking the ball all around the park, with boundaries being regularly obtained from the less than accurate Cowgate change bowlers. No sooner was he in the nineties than he’d reached his hundred with two big hits down to long on, one of which just had the legs to cross the boundary. The Morpeth team rose to applaud the efforts of their opening batsmen and the Second look set for a big total with the score on 158 for none. However, no sooner had he got to his ton, he had to depart being caught at point from a miscued drive which had been destined for the long off rope.

This brought Poxton to the crease, who had been in a rich vein of form recently scoring 132 runs unbeaten in his past two innings. It wasn’t long before he was back in his stride, launching the bowlers back over their heads at will, with three massive sixes coming off Ahmed. In between, Morpeth had lost Cowell to a sharp run out, with a direct hit from the square leg fielder being fractionally to quick for the wily old fox.

Morpeth now had their two most attacking batsmen in the middle, with 8 overs to go and the score standing at 195. Both Meikle and Poxton were ruthless in amassing runs at 11 an over. Meikle was out just before the end with the score on 244 after a breezy 19 and there was just enough time for Poxton to reach another undefeated half century, finishing the innings with a four and a six, and 56 runs to his name.

After devouring a plentiful tea, consisting mostly of cakes, biscuits, and other sugary offerings the Morpeth boys were led back in to the field by Maxted. Craigs and Jones took the new ball and found that Alished and Imtaite were in no mood for hanging about. A number of agricultural heaves to the legside brought Alished regular boundaries, while at the other end Imtaite was swinging himself off his feet, but with little contact.

He did however, manage to nick one from Bedenell Craigs, and was smartly taken by Clow. Despite the umpires finger and numerous pointers from the Morpeth fielders the Cowgate batsmen hung around for a good 15 seconds, looking flummoxed as to why he had been sent on his way. However, after a ‘polite’ word from Maxted he summarily left the field of play and allowed the game to continue.

Jones was then in on the tricks, having Latif caught well by a leaping Goodings in the covers, and Morpeth were in to the Cowgate batting line up, the home side being 42-2 after 9 overs. Crawford didn’t last long and was soon on his way as Craigs crashed the party on his middle stump, the youngster having made only 1 run.

A brief partnership from Ahmed and Alished threatened to unnerve Morpeth temporarily as they got back into touching distance of the asking rate. Maxted was quick in his thinking and turned to Nick Rose to see if he could break the stand, he almost had Alished from his 3rd ball, but the skied effort was put down by the bowler, much to his annoyance. The disappointment didn’t last long as he bowled Ahmed next ball with a lovely slower ball yorker.

Ali provided a little resistance, and was at the crease long enough to see opener Alished get to his fifty, despite being dropped again off Rose, this time by Craigs rushing back from point. Rose again did the trick with a tricky off cutter that Ali could only scoop to the alert Poxton at mid on. The end was nigh as Cowgate had smashed their way to 101 for 5 from 19 overs. However, things didn’t last much longer as Rose has Alished and Azad caught at deep mid-wicket by ‘bucket’ Meikle. Rose then claimed a deserved five fer with a skied catch from Javeed which was easily taken by Clow behind the stumps.

At the other end, Maxted had swapped Craigs for Dhugga, who was bowling tightly with no reward. This changed in the next over as he bowled Latif for 12 and then 3 balls later wrapped up the win by bowling Ali for 2. Cowgate having subsided to 126 all out in 26.5 overs. So Morpeth took home the 20 points and remain second in the league table. They will continue their promotion push as they entertain Consett at Longhirst on Saturday 11th July, with a 1.30pm start.

Man of the Match: Jonny Wailes
 

Match Report: Chris Maxted
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