Norden's title hopes hit the buffers

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Norden Cricket Club

Norden’s late surge for the JW Lees Pennine League title finally hit the buffers at Stag Park on Monday.

Norden restricted table-toppers Walsden to a score of 156 for eight, but they were then skittled for 77.

At 43 for one Norden looked set to go on and win, but Norden turned into rabbits in the headlights with the introduction to the Walsden attack of spinning pro’ Umesh Karunaratne.
The Sri Lankan took a wicket with his first delivery, and twice he was on a hat-trick in his first over.

Another wicket came fifth ball of his second over and his personal tally at that stage was five for nought.

By the end of the game his figures were seven for 18, mainly due to having been hit for two sixes by Nick Fairchild.

It was quite a day for Karunaratne, seven wickets, a catch, a hand in a run out, and 26 runs which was second best in the Walsden innings.

Norden's reply was in the first over when Hashum Malik steered a Jamie Shackleton delivery to Karunaratne in the slips.

Michael Price and Rehan Udwadia then took the total up to 43, Price being the more aggressive, but on 33 he became Karunaratne’s first victim – bowled.

There followed an amazing collapse.

Ash Gowers was bowled by Karunaratne without scoring, Harvey Fitton went the same way after facing two deliveries, Simon North popped up a return catch to Karunaratne as the number of ducks continued to grow and Steve Pimm was bowled by Karunaratne to make it 47 for six – and another duck.

Rehan Udwadia had been stood helpless at the other end watching what was fast becoming a debacle from Norden’s point of view, and only two runs were added before he was given out leg before to Karunaratne for a defiant nine.

It had long gone start the car time, but Martin Smith attacked and slammed three fours before being ninth out, bowled by Josh Gale.

Before that had been an unlucky dismissal for Jack Harrison. Smith slammed a Karunaratne delivery straight back down the wicket and the pro’ just managed to touch the ball onto the stumps with the backing up Harrison out of his ground.

The last small act of defiance from Norden came from Nick Fairchild who bagged his second six before offering a return catch to Karunaratne for 15 – his highest score of the season.

Earlier in the day Martin Smith had bowled 15 overs and taken one for 21, and Hashum Malik had delivered 14 overs and taken two for 31.

Both bowled well on what looked a tricky pitch for batsmen, although some poor shots did account for some of the wickets to go down.

Josh Gale was pouched at mid-off by Price and Jake Hooson went the same way. Nick Barker and James Rawlinson then featured in a slow scoring partnership of 17 before Barker gave

Simon North a simple catch to make it 29 for three.
Rawlinson battled on, joined by Karunaratne who went for his shots before getting pinned down to an extent, the last thirteen of his 26 runs coming in singles.

Rawlinson was eventually bowled by Fairchild for 15, Karunaratne was bowled by North, and Matt Dawson was caught by Fairchild for 16 with three figures having been reached on the board.

Callum Rushton managed only one, but Joe Gale and Steve Barker boosted the total, Gale hitting four sixes before Jamie Shackleton hit 10 off the last two balls of the 50 overs.

Walsden

J Hooson c Price b Malik 5
Josh Gale c Price b Malik 4
N Barker c North b Smith 14
J Rawlinson b Fairchild 15
U Karunaratne b North 26
M Dawson c Fairchild b North 16
Joe Gale not out 38
C Rushton b North 1
S Barker c North b Fairchild 13
J Shackleton not out 10
Extras 14
Total (for 8 wkts) 156
Bowling: Smith 15-7-21-1; Malik 14-6-31-2; Fairchild 11-1-60-2; North 10-1-43-3.

Norden

H Malik c Karunaratne b Shackleton 0
M Price b Karunaratne 33
R Udwadia lbw Karunaratne 9
A Gowers b Karunaratne 0
H Fitton b Karunaratne 0
S North c and b Karunaratne 0
S Pimm b Karunaratne 0
M Smith b Josh Gale 13
J Harrison run out 0
N Fairchild c and b Karunaratne 15
C Hartley not out 0
Extras 7
Total 77
Bowling: Shackleton 5-1-22-1; S Barker 4-1-20-0; Josh Gale 6-1-13-1; Karunaratne 5.5-2-18-7