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Didsbury's fine Driver

3/ 7/2008

OLLIE Driver was the star man as Didsbury pulled victory from the jaws of defeat in their Cheshire County League division one match at Bramhall.

Having batted first, Didsbury were reduced to 108-8 before Driver (39) and John Fawcett (38) took them a respectable 189 all out.

Those extra runs gave the Didsbury bowlers added momentum as Driver followed up his batting exploits by taking 5-13.

He was supported by Peter Manser who weighed in with 3-22 to dismiss Bramhall for 90 and keep Didsbury’s promotion hopes alive.

However, Didsbury’s seconds saw their long winning run brought to an end in the reverse fixture.

Batting first on a green wicket, Didsbury worked hard to post 169-9 with the main contributions coming from Matt Marfani (36) and Ollie Steward (27).

Although Nigel Bellamy took 4-33 and Dave Ashworth added 2-19, Didsbury could not take the final wicket despite having 25 overs at the last pair as Bramhall ended on 135-9.

In division two, Burnage slumped to a 51-run defeat at Tattenhall as their good start was wasted by a middle order collapse.

Burnage had won the toss and put their hosts in, only to see them make good use of improved batting conditions and some poor bowling to reach 213-8, Syed Abbas taking 4-47 for Burnage.

In reply, Burnage openers Mohammed Zaman (37) and Sajid Mahmood (21) put on 61 before falling in consecutive overs.

Although Riswan Baig (42) gave Burnage a good chance of victory, his dismissal sparked a batting collapse as five wickets fell for 28 runs to leave them all out for 162.

The second team continued their good run with the better of a draw at Tattenhall, where the home side’s last pair hung on.

Burnage had rattled up 258 all out, Waqas Mahmood hitting 103 with 34 apiece from Mohammed Yaseen and Safdar Shah.

Good middle order batting put Tattenhall in a good position before Burnage fought back to have them 222-9 at the close.