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Hyde 205-9 Heaton Mersey 196-6

21/ 5/2008

A RAIN-AFFECTED match saw Hyde force a draw at a Heaton Mersey side who fell 10 runs short of victory.

Having won the toss for the fifth time this season, Hyde’s captain James Duffy elected to bat on a very good wicket at Heaton Mersey with former captain David Fitzsimmons leading the home side.

As has become typical, Hyde lost early wickets as Hassan Rashid (4-33) did the damage with some excellent bowling to leave the visitors floundering at 21-3.

It took some good hitting from Duffy (87) to get Hyde back in a good position and, ably assisted by Michael Morris (31), he put Hyde in a good position with a stand of 97 to leave them 118-4.

However, Hyde’s lower middle order failed to fire with a couple of run-outs contributing to a terrible collapse which saw last man Daniel Woods walking out to join Danny Berry with the score at 151-9.  Berry once again pulled Hyde out of a sticky position, smashing 54 from 26 balls including a final over in which he hit 30 runs to give his side the ascendancy once again.

Heaton Mersey’s reply started well with Hyde’s only frontline seamer Tom Young (2-48) struggling to find any luck to give Hyde the first wicket.

Catlow (27) and Norbury (75) batted solidly but managed to score runs at quick rate which put Hyde’s total under threat before Catlow was dismissed by Woods.  Fitzsimmons (39) set about his old bowling attack with the help of Norbury who finally succumbed to Berry (2-72) having played half his innings with a runner.

Bennett (26) and Fitzsimmons put Mersey in the driving seat with around a run a ball needed from the last 10 overs.

It was only when Berry’s direct hit ran out Fitzsimmons that Mersey began to fade, and when Bennett departed with the score at 174-4, Hyde took the initiative and managed to pick up a couple more wickets to slow the scoring rate and ensure a drawn game.