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Aston CC 1st XI vs Wirral CC 1st XI - Match Preview

Aston CC 1st XI vs Wirral CC 1st XI - Match Preview

Noddy Holder11 May 2016 - 11:00
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Wirral CC 1st XI looking for 3 from 3 to repeat last season's double over Aston...

Aston CC vs Wirral CC

Saturday 14th May 2016
by Noddy Holder

Our fourth game of the season sees us take our early season form to mid table Aston. The league can be very misleading at such an early part of the season but our form so far places us 22 points ahead of Saturday’s hosts. There is however nothing misleading about our 2 emphatic wins so far.

The opposition:

Aston themselves picked up form on their last outing vs Chester County Officers CC. A convincing 102 win will leave them fired up and ready to build on that start for the season. The win will certainly help forget the disappointing 177 runs loss in their opener vs Langley CC.
That opening game saw Langley post 239 for 7 down. This will certainly encourage our Wirral batsmen that themselves have posted a solid 196 in the opener and the ease of a required 66 (for 1 wicket) in their latest, in continuing such a positive start with the bat.
In response to Langley's 239, Aston could only muster 62-10, early season cobwebs perhaps? Their second game vs Chester CO CC suggesting yes as they tallied a max point benchmark of 181-6 off from the grain. Our Wirral bowlers will be more than motivated to build on their clinical early destruction (bowling Bunbury out for 100 and most recently Wayfarers for 65). But the most recent of Aston’s games a reminder to our bowlers that nothing can be taken for granted and we must certainly not judge our efforts on Aston’s cobweb dusting first innings of the season of 62.

Danger man:

Syed Shah’s 67 undefeated in Aston’s most recent start shows danger with the bat. Especially given that innings came from 6th batting position. We should learn from this that early wickets are important but we do not ease up until the last batsman is in the hut!
But, with the upmost respect of all dangers posed by Aston’s team, it is seasoned regular Andy Leese that remains the danger man. We have faced some solid bowling in our first 2 games and have produced the quality to see off the new ball and the quality AND destruction to punish the middle order ball. Leese can offer runs from the off when batting but having returned figures of 7-17 last time out he will certainly be the stiffest test of our batting.

Last Season:

We won both fixtures vs Aston in 2015. Our first encounter saw us bat first and post 171-8 before bowling the out for 73. That certainly is the theme of season so we will need to work hard to ensure this outcome again within our current pattern.
Our return fixture at Aston saw a much closer finish as they posted 144-7 and we knocked them off for 6.
Dom Develing seems to enjoy the fixture most having hit 59 and 44 last year and taking 4 for and 3 for.
Danger man Leese the pick for Aston taking 5 for in the first – McCormack taking 3-17 second time around.

Team News (subject to change & update):

We will be travelling without Dom Develing who is on baby watch. He will be missed given last season’s form vs Aston. Andy Slight will be missing and a massive loss on season form having taken a 7 for himself this season and looking more relaxed with the bat. Danny Develing too will be missed on the back of his destructive 77; Sam O’Connell offering plenty for that big hitting stint in the middle. Still, awaiting confirmation on strike bowlers Fletcher’s availability who will be sorely missed if unavailable for his wicket taking ability at any stage of an innings but Morris and Garrett have started fantastically as an opening partnership and will be looking to build on that this weekend.

Last season’s 2 fixtures and even the 2 fixtures this season shows us that potentially 2 very different Aston’s can take to the field but regardless of which one we face this Saturday we must maintain the standards we’ve set out to force home a win.

Further reading