1st XI Reports
Any game against St Anne’s is always set to be a tough one and this weekend was no different against the 2009 league champions.
During the week, it was revealed that Andrew Flintoff has asked Lancashire whether he could play for his former club St Anne’s, although unfortunately he didn’t appear on what turned out to be yet another hugely frustrating and disappointing day for the Chorley first team.
Batting first, Chorley knew that how they played Sri-Lankan spin bowler Dinuk Hettiarachchi would be the key to any chance of victory. Hettiarachchi had already taken an astonishing 45 wickets this season to date and has taken 60% of his teams wickets, highlighting that if we played him sensibly, accumulating 1’s and 2’s, then a lot of pressure would be put on the less experienced bowlers.
As it happened, Chorley weren’t able to put theory into practise as they were bowled out for a dismal 79. Although Jon Jon Smuts looked good for his 38, only Reynard and Holdsworth were the only other batsmen to reach double figures with Hettiarachchi revelling in highly favourable spinning conditions on a used, dusty and dry wicket. No batsmen really had the technique to cope with the accuracy and spin that the St Anne’s professional was able to produce and weren’t able to cash in from the other end, meaning that 8 wickets were lost for only 20 runs at the end on the innings.
When defending a mere 79, it is key to take early wickets to put the opposition under some degree of pressure. Unfortunately, Chorley were unable to do this despite some ferociously turning and bouncing deliveries from spinner Jon Jon Smuts who opened the bowling to try and emulate what his opposite number had achieved. Atiq Uz-Zaman, a former Pakistan test player who is crazily allowed to play as an amateur and Andy Kellett, the St Anne’s pair batted sensible not taking too many risks and knocked off the modest score for the loss of no wicket. This condemned Chorley to their second embarrassing 10 wicket defeat in as many weeks leaving many questions to be answered before next week’s fixture against Fleetwood.
