2nd XI - Morpeth Dominate with Bat and Ball

 

After the debacle last weekend against Ryton, Morpeth’s second string were in a determined mood to get their season back on track. The side was boosted by the return to the side of Stephen Cowell, Sandy Meikle and Loz Brown to bolster the batting line-up, while David Harbottle and James Craigs came into the squad from the first side to add depth to the batting and strengthen the bowling outfit which struggled for wickets the previous week. The weather looked slightly inclement at the toss, but with the pitch in decent condition Maxted opted to bat after finally winning a toss for only the second time in the season.

The innings set off at a good pace, with Wailes and Cowell resuming their opening partnership and both players hitting early boundaries with cut shots off some wayward early bowling. There was again early wickets lost, however, with Wailes receiving a ball which cut back in to take his off stump, while Cowell glided one of f the face of his bat straight to a grateful fielder at gully, leaving Morpeth struggling with 2 wickets down for 30 runs. These wickets brought Clark and Meikle together who have batted well in partnerships all season and they quickly set about their job of rebuilding the innings. Clark was once again showing dogged determination in compiling his runs while Meikle was far more aggressive at the other end. Meikle, looking for the big runs which have eluded his during the campaign, got out in disappointing circumstances, by skying an attempted cover drive over the top, only to be well caught in the ring. Loz Brown came and went quickly following a disastrous mix-up with Clark, with both batsmen ending up at the same end, and Brown subsequently being run out.

The innings was in danger of collapsing in the same manner as the previous week, but Harbottle coming in at number 6 gave a very accomplished display and forged another big partnership with Clark to give the total a respectable look to it. Harbottle got quickly into his stride and displayed some lovely timing picking up boundaries square of the wicket on either side, and quickly amassed 40 runs to provide the platform for the bowlers later in the day. Clark eventually was run out for 48, agonisingly short of his half-century, leaving Ingram and Craigs with the job at the end of belting some quick runs to push the total up to 177-7 at the end of the innings.

Morpeth set about the task of defending their total with Craigs and Wright taking the new ball, and bowling with fantastic accuracy to keep the run rate down to less than 2 per over, creating great pressure for the rest of the innings. Craigs bowled very well without reward, as the Morpeth pair went through the first 10 overs without a breakthrough before Wright eventually found the outside edge, which was taken with a brilliant diving catch by Meikle behind the stumps. In his following over, Wright somehow clung on to a smart caught and bowled which was close to decapitating the stunned bowler.

With momentum heading in their direction, Morpeth turned to their spinning wicket machine Kurran Dhugga, who bowled with his usual variations which would ultimately prove to be too much for the opposition. David Harbottle followed up his great knock with the bat by bowling a very tight spell and picked up a good wicket with a jaffer off an out swinger which took the top of off stump. Dhugga wiped out the middle order with ease ending up with 4 wickets from his 11 overs, and while Morpeth were unable to wrap up the tail for the full 20 points, the victory was never really in doubt at any stage of the Whickham innings.
 

Man of the match: David Harbottle

Match Report: Tom Wright

Return to Home Page