An excellent 103 run victory over rivals Normanby Hall, saw BACC 1XI maintain their second-place position in the NYSD Div. 1 with seven games left to play.
The visitors, upon winning the toss immediately opted to field, given that the green pitch had a green tinge and was still somewhat tacky from the unexpected overnight rain on Thursday. Openers Jack Rutherford (13) and Steve Chapman (66) were watchful against the new ball and runs were at times difficult to come by. The Rose brothers, opening the bowling for Normanby Hall, were accurate and consistent. When Rutherford played on with the score on 20 it was clear that the batting day ahead was going to be attritional to say the least. In form Scott Oldfield was fluent for 18 before being nicely caught at mid-wicket by Vaughan, as was Matt Cowling who made 17 before being brilliantly caught and bowled by Ishaq. Skipper Nathan Rimmington (21) was positive during his stay and when Ian Grainger teed off smashing 29 from just 15 balls, 225 looked a real possibility. All the while Chapman remained resilient, rotating the strike and picking up the occasional boundary throughout his innings. Thomas Stones made a very polished 10 towards the end of the innings but Bishops were disappointed to be bowled out in the final over two short of 200. Left arm spinner Rehman (3/49) and seamer Akhtar (4/45) were the pick of the visitor’s wicket takers.
The Normanby Hall reply started disastrously as they began their innings knowing that a good batting display would keep them right in the hunt of the top two league positions. Roosenboom and Rimmington once again struck early. When overseas player Wahli Rehman was brilliantly caught at mid on by Matthew Cowling the visitors were reduced to 2/3 in just the 4th over. A poor position very quickly got worse, as Vaughan, batting at number 3, needlessly ran himself out after hitting a drive straight towards the oncoming Matthew Cowling at mid-off. Hall were suddenly 17/4. Jordan Leech (47) for the visitors played positively, attacking width aggressively form the seamers and was prepared to hook when the bowling was short. As wickets fell around Leech, Aussie seamer Ben Roosenboom continued his recent stellar form, ripping the heart out of the visitors batting effort to complete another outstanding performance taking 5/37. Steve Chapman replaced Nath Rimmington and finished with 3 wickets of his own for just 7 runs bowling his spin, as the visitors fell short of their chase by some 103 runs as they were bolwed out for 95.
Scorecard https://bishopauckland.play-cricket.com/website/results/5134646
