Norden CC under 13s got their league campaign underway last Friday with a short trip to face Rochdale.
The starting XI showed several changes to the side that lost in the cup in midweek with Harry Spencer, Archie Crabtree and Mohid Shah all included.
Captain James Frankish won the toss and decided to have a bat on a lovely evening which allowed for 20 overs to be played. The visitors game plan was to ensure they batted for 20 overs but openers Daniel Wild and Adam Bunting still showed intent and put away the bad ball when necessary keeping scorer David Almond on his toes.
Some tight bowling from Sami Ajaz and Soban Khan meant the hosts were comfortable with how the game was progressing but Wild and Bunting began to up the pace and had reached 54 in the 10th over before Wild was bowled by Zaid Qamar for 25. This allowed the incoming batsman to go on the attack but the side were wary that Lancashire spinner Moosa Kashmiri had not yet entered the fray as his excellent variety of bowling can trouble any batsman in this league.
Bunting and captain James Frankish instead decided to target the other bowlers and pick off Kashmiri when a bad ball permitted them to do so. Bunting went after Gohar Aftab and hit two boundaries off him on his way to retiring 30 not out before Aftab got some revenge by taking a return catch and dismissing Frankish for 11.
With 6 overs now left, it was all systems go for the Norden batsman but the big hitting Archie Greenwood fell for just 6 and the visitors racked up 25 runs in these overs with Zayaan Nadeem (10) and Ralph Bennet 9 not out taking the score up to 111.
Rochdale opened with Kashmiri and Mohammed Junaid whilst James Greenoff took the new ball for Norden. It was a cagey affair with Norden content to allow Kashmiri to score at a run a ball but by the end of the 5th over Rochdale were sat on 30/0 and a tight game looked in-store. This brought Harry Spencer to the crease which enabled Norden to take the pace off the ball and it worked a treat as he bowled uninterrupted from the scoreboard end for 4 overs, conceding just 13 runs in the process and also taking the wicket of Junaid.
This pushed up the required run-rate but Moosa Kashmiri was still at the crease but in the 12th over he retired on 31 and then it was downhill for Rochdale. With 63 runs required from 8 overs, it meant some big hitting was needed but the middle order was dismissed in quick succession as Daniel Wild bowled Khan and Hussain and then Zac Brown followed that up the following over courtesy of an excellent catch by Archie Crabtree to dismiss Ajaz for 12. In the 16th over Lord was run out for 2 and then Brown took a further wicket the following ball to all but end the game. Gohar Aftab had some fun at the end and hit a couple of boundaries on his way to 15 not out whilst Norden took the opportunity to give everybody who hadn’t batted a bowl. It enabled Rochdale to finish on 91/6 with Zac Brown the pick of the bowlers taking 2/3 off his two overs.