Three in three for the 1's!

Heaton Mersey 193-9

Knutsford CC 77 AO

Result: Heaton Mersey win by 116 runs.

The third game week saw, Heaton Mersey 1st XI welcome Knutsford CC as they looked to continue their undefeated start and cement their place at the top of the table.

On an slow looking wicket, unfortunately Laverty lost the toss and unsurprisingly Mersey were put into bat first. Alishan Khan was the first to fall for (4) edging of followed by Josh Ainscough (9) and Craig Shirley (9) who both fell to Knutsford’s Zahid Saleem (2-17), who was bowling well on the tricky wicket. This bought John Barnett and John Moon to the crease with the score at 28-4 who managed to put on a partnership of 109 which set up a great foundation for Mersey to put a competitive score. A mix of rotating the strike and putting away the bat ball from both Moon and Barnet blasted Mersey back in the driving seat. Moon ended up on (70) after being caught with Barnet also finishing on (38).The scoring rate accelerated through the end of the innings through aggressive stroke play and cameos between Luke Marshall, Hassan Rashid and Jack Humpage, ending Mersey’s total on 193-9.

The inform partnership of Hassan Rashid and Luke Marshall got Mersey of to the best start with Rashid removing the Knutsford opener and Luke getting rid of their number 3 without troubling the scorecard. After some resistance from Zeeshan Shah, in came Ismael Khan, who managed to edge off the remaining opener leaving Knutsford 31-3. Shortly after this Rashid picked up his second wicket putting Mersey in a strong position. This allowed Craig Shirley to run riot on the lower order of Knutsford finishing on figures of (13-5) backed up by Waqar Rashid (17-1). Knutsford were bowled out for 77 and Mersey took the victory by 116 runs.

That victory keeps Mersey to the top of the league. The 1st XI travel to Weaverham CC next week looking to continue the undefeated start to the season.

Thanks to our scorer Ollie, our positive supporters, our week sponsor Mark Heaton and our team sponsor Neurological Physiotherapy.