A bright, hot day in Bramhall awaited the Mersey 3rds this Sunday. A perfect day for batting on flat track. Shabaz won the toss and elected to bat. Given his rich vein of form, a good choice.

Mersey opened with Shabaz (38) and Sharjeel (15), contrasting styles lead to a steady opening stand. Shabaz the aggressor and Sharjeel showing bags of concentration. After a collapse Mersey found themselves bumbling along to a total far short of which the track deserved. The introduction of Fordy and Humpage (20*) lead to a 50+ stand. Fordy hit some lofty blows before spooning one up to point for 48. Having mooched off to a send off from a kid. He consoled his jug avoidance with some teas. Well batted. 163-8 after the 40.

Mersey took to the field probably 30-40 runs short of where we should have been. This however paled into insignificance as the Bramhall openers set about the chase dispatching the Mersey attack to the boundary on multiple occasions. Generally the less said about this the better. The saving grace being some good opening bowling from Ishmael, who bowled tight at good pace, he deserved a wicket. He was joined by the golden arm, Mark Lever. Lever took 4 wickets for 11 runs, including a hat trick chance.

We came up against a good batting with the opener (Willoughby),making his first app of the season, scoring 88*.

Knock it on the head... learn from it... and bounce back this weekend.

MOTM.... Mark Lever for his 4 wickets.

ps Mark has grown his the picture was taken!!!