After a chastening defeat in the t20 at Greenmount on Friday night, Norden returned to winning ways in the league with a 6-wicket victory at Hare Hill on Sunday. After Littleborough had batted first and put 217/9 on the board, it was Mitch Owen who came to the fore in the run chase. His unbeaten century, his second for Norden, came from 71 balls and saw his team home with over 8 overs to spare.
The Littleborough innings was built around half-centuries from Zac Perren and Ryan Miskella, after sub-pro Haseeb Hameed had been caught behind for 30 off the bowling of Owen. The Boro pair put on 65 and, with Dom Humphreys having left the field with a side-strain, the Norden bowling attack was under pressure. The Butterworth brothers stepped up and took 7 wickets between them, Greg with 3 and Scott 4 to take his tally in the league to 16. Miskella batted through until the final over for his 62 and Joe Barnes played a nice cameo of 27 from 17 balls.
With Humphreys unlikely to bat, Norden started the chase effectively 1 wicket down and they lost both openers before the score had reached 30. Owen was his usual aggressive self from the outset, and again found good support from Jack Taylor. Taylor is fast becoming a key cog in this Norden team and he again played with intelligence, rotating the strike and allowing the professional to dominate the home bowlers. The partnership had just reached 100 when Miskella got one through Taylor’s defences and Greg Butterworth was caught behind off Hameed soon afterwards. The cool head of Spencer Allen joined Owen and there was to be no futher joy for the Littleborough bowlers. Owen struck 11 fours and 3 sixes in his knock, finishing unbeaten on 108. A fine effort under pressure. Allen was 19*
1st XI Scorecad: https://norden.play-cricket.com/website/results/6107829
Unfortunately, Friday night’s game must be at least mentioned in passing. Defending champions Greenmount made a good, but far from un-gettable, 180/4 and Norden fancied their chances at half-way. Tom Heaton made 76 for the hosts. Josh Tolley was cleaned up by Callum Hunter in the first over and Owen holed out off his counterpart Jacques Snyman in the second, meaning a tough chace now looked almost impossible. The Norden batting line-up continued to be aggressive, but to no avail as Hunter ran through the side, taking an impressive 5 for 7 from his 4 overs. The Stags were bowled out for just 35, meaning they may well have to win all their remaining group games to qualify for the quarter-finals. They have a chance to start that run at home to Walsden on Friday night.
T20 Scorecard: https://norden.play-cricket.com/website/results/6099233
A youthful 2nd team put on an excellent showing at Stag Park on Sunday. Batting first, Norden lost Oli Kirkby and Haris Hussain in consecutive deliveries with the score on 29, but the experienced pair of Phil Docker and Hashim Malik put on 51 before Docker went for one sweep too many and fell for 32. Malik continued alongside Oli Yates and they too put on over 50. Malik made a 2nd half-century of the season and was a tad unlucky to fall to a good caught and bowled from Andy Rodgerson. The Norden innings fell away a little, but Yates’ 44 was his highest score at this level and a total of 206/8 was definitely something to bowl at. It was Yates who did the damage with the new ball, taking 3 early wickets before handing over to step-brother Jake Hill on debut. Hill, in tandem with Mo Waheed, bowled impressively and was unlucky not to have picked up a wicket or two before he finally got his just rewards. Jamie Roche and Harrison Chew had threatened to make a game of it, but Hill removed both set batters in the same over, before adding a 3rd wicket when Littleborough skipper Tim Astley failed to make contact with a pull shot and was bowled. Littleborough fell 63 short of their target, giving Norden all 12 points.
2nd XI Scorecard: https://norden.play-cricket.com/website/results/6110295
2nd XI Highlights: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CYpPBApYrXs&feature=youtu.be
Littleborough were also the opponents for the 3rds on Saturday. Charlie Gooding, playing his first game of the season after returning from university, was right back in the swing of things taking 4 for 5 from 5.3 overs. There were also 2 wickets for Seb Howard as Littleborough were all out for 90. Norden’s chase was helped considerably by 32 extras, and a sensible 23* from Will Hindley got Jimmy’s men over the line with plenty of time to spare.
3rd XI Scorecard: https://norden.play-cricket.com/website/results/6109984