On an untypical gloomy Saturday afternoon, Heaton Mersey 1s hosted the in-form Bunbury in a top of the table clash. Before the fixture, Mersey were positioned well-ahead in first; with a comfortable 25-plus advantage over the chasing pack. The home side went into the fixture aware that a victory would have further strengthened this position. Captain Luke won the toss and elected to bat first.
Mersey initially started solidly, amounting to a 20-run first partnership from the first 10 overs. Bunbury’s opening attack were able to restrict the usually explosive Louis Mundin (11) through the continuation of tight bowling. Unfortunately, this would prove to be Mersey’s highest partnership as wickets would continue to fall frequently throughout the innings; which prevented the home side from gathering any real momentum. An arduous and gritty 25 from Jordy B was supplemented by helpful cameos from Rob (15), Fordy (13) and Luke (11*) which enabled the home side to at least make some advantage of the double batting points. Mersey finished 101 all out from 43.3 overs.
The second innings commenced typically with a hostile spell from Luke; often beating the outside edge and forcing the Bunbury opening pair into frequent evasive action. Bunbury soon lost their first wicket. Steventon mistakenly thought there was a single to mid-on and was resultingly corrected by a direct hit from Josh. Luke was supported by Faisal whose brace meant that the away side stuttered to 15-3.
Bunbury skipper Farrington was perhaps fortunate to not have been run-out at the non-striker’s end by Faisal in what was a remarkable piece of fielding. Never the less, Farrington (31), alongside Chorlton (37), both played aggressively to take the game away from the home side. With Bunbury coasting at 78-3, Mersey were able to claw their way back into the game. Fantastic catches from Dommi, Luke and Jordy saw the away side collapse to a nervy 94-7. However, the grand-stand finish came to an anti-climatic finish with Tom Lav gifting Bunbury the winning runs through consecutive no-balls. 102-7 off 24.3 overs.
In conclusion, a very disappointing day. The post-match analysis determined that Mersey were 20-40 runs short with the bat. However, the bowling and fielding performances remained aggressive and intense throughout, making a low target extremely hard work. On a more positive note, good results across the top of the division mean that there have been no dramatic changes to the leader board.
Mersey have the chance to rectify the result next week away to Wilmslow Wayfarers.
A quick mention of thanks to Oli for the scoring, the umpires and everyone who was able to come down and support the team.