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Macc Edged out in derby

21/ 5/2008

Macclesfield 169, Alderley Edge 172-8 (Alderley Edge win by two wickets) - MACCLESFIELD went down at Alderley Edge in a local derby against one of the league favourites.

Play was delayed due to light rain at Moss Lane and the toss eventually took place at 2.15pm with only a handful of overs lost. Drizzle then caused a further delay and the 82-over game did not start until after tea.

Khalid Sawas and Ben Morrison got the Macc innings off to a steady start, playing some good shots against Cheshire bowler Jason Whittaker and Sohail Rauf. However, both fell within quick succession along with Rob Porter and, at 43-3 the job to rescue the innings fell to Jason Knight and Nathan Allen. Knight was in typical no-nonsense mood, combining blocking and the punishing of bad balls, while Allen was solid in defence with some beautiful shots, most notably a straight drive back past Rauf to bring up Macc’s 100.

Macc looked in good shape at 101-3 off 30 overs, but Allen unluckily found a fielder off a full toss and Knight fell for 43 and the run rate dropped.

Martin Tunwell and the lower order pushed the score on with some good running and big shots and batted on, using up extra overs to put Edge under more pressure when they batted.

Tunwell finished unbeaten on 30 as Macc were bowled out for 169, leaving Edge 38 overs to win. Whittaker ended with an impressive six for 39.

The Alderley response started in exhilarating fashion as former Lancashire player Mark Currie (35) and Macc old boy Alan Day (28) scored 70 off the first seven overs, smashing some poor bowling to the fence with ease. However, when Currie and Day were both out LBW within three overs of each other, the game turned on its head.

Suddenly Alderley dried up and Melrose and Cutbill looked like taking a wicket with every ball.

At 96-6 the pressure built on Edge’s Whittaker and Walker. Both survived close calls before Walker fell to a fine slip catch by the injured Ian Tait to bring Wildig to the wicket at 112-7.

The number nine batsman chanced his arm in scoring 23 at a run a ball before being stumped by Hughes, to leave Alderley 143-8 with four overs remaining. Now past 9pm, fielding became more difficult than batting in the gloom and they reached the final over needing eight to win.

A boundary over deep mid-wicket and two runs at point preceded a couple of dot balls, before the excellent Whittaker cleared mid-on with the penultimate ball to finish with 37 not out and win the game. Melrose ended with five for 80, and Cutbill three for 67 as Macc claimed six points.