Tatts go down in close game at Northwich

Tattenhall 173-7 Northwich 174-8

Tattenhall 173-7 (Coppack 31, Afzal 50) Northwich 174-8 (Forster 3-30)

Tattenhall came out second best in a close game against Northwich, a game in which they played the best cricket of the two sides and were unlucky not to win.

With rain in the air, the match was reduced to 46 overs a side, Tattenhall lost the toss and were invited to bat first on a green wicket. Two needless wickets via a run-out and leg-side strangle left Tattenhall at 15-2 after 5 overs. However, Coppack played some good shots before being caught for 31 and Afzal contributed a very good 50 to take Tattenhall to 111-4 at which point they looked well set to put another big score on the board.
Unfortunately, the middle and lower order did not kick on as they would have liked and whilst a final score of 173-7 was a respectable (and defendable) total. Some late hitting by Cheshire gave Tatts 6 bonus points.

Brock and Forster(recalled to the team to provide much-needed control with the ball) started well with the ball and Northwich were reduced to 54-4 with the key wicket of Walker taken with a good slip catch from Ben Pearce. Again, however, Tattenhall failed to capitalise on the good start and gave away to many loose balls, whilst also allowing Northwich to take quick singles as the pendulum of the game swung in their favour. Tattenhall managed to pick up a few more wickets and at 140-7 were probably favourites for the game. However, Evans rode his luck for 67 to take Northwich ahead of the run rate. After his dismissal, Tattenhall finally managed to exert some control but it was too little, too late as Northwich got home with three balls to spare.

Tattenhall will rue the missed chances in this game, which they were the better team for much of, but showed some signs of promise for rest of the season.