Cricket: Townsend catalyst to a vital Heywood victory

A return of six wickets for seven runs from just 36 balls by Travis Townsend acted as a catalyst to a vital Greater Manchester Premier League victory for Heywood.

The Heywood professional embarked on his spree with Egerton 46-3 chasing Heywood’s modest total of 116 on a tricky Crimble wicket, before a packed pavilion and patio crowd on a fundraising day for the Christie Hospital in Withington.

His first victim came via a spectacular one-handed catch at mid-wicket by Bobby Cross to get rid of Danny Partington, who was threatening to put his side into a good position.

From then on, however, Townsend was unstoppable.

He shattered the stumps of D Dudley for a first ball duck a with a yorker, and 46-5 put Heywood firmly in control.

Six runs later, Townsend claimed the vital wicket of fellow professional Pandu Maduwantha aided by a fine catch from wicketkeeper Wes Hunt, standing up to the medium pacer and creditably claiming a healthy edge.

There was no let-up. Dave Hamnett fell to a slick slip catch by Andy Dawson, then Egerton skipper Will Halton – who had doggedly been trying to stem the tide with a single from 22 balls – also had his stumps removed by Townsend to make it 53-8. The rest was a formality.

Phil Dickinson became Townsend’s sixth and final victim, the third clean bowled, four runs later.

The spree was completed when Amal Dalugoda called for a quick single and was run out by Hunt as he ran from behind the stumps and saw his throw from square leg hit the wickets at the opposite end.

That completed a vital 59-run victory which takes Heywood fourth from bottom of the Premier League. Yet few could have predicted such a comfortable outcome at the halfway stage.

The Heywood batting line-up had struggled to break off the shackles imposed by the Egerton spinners, despite the visitors missing Matt Parkinson on Lancashire duty, which made it a test of patience to survive and attritional to score runs.

After Riley Paterson had been bowled for seven by left-arm spinner Dalugoda, who was to finish with a five-wicket haul himself, Cross and Danny Pawson battled hard to take the total to 54-1 at little more than two per over.

When Pawson was lbw to Halton for 21, and Cross miscued a catch off Maduwantha to deep mid-on, it became further apparent than any hopes of a significant total were wishful thinking.

Townsend, Jack Morley and Andy Dawson each made what were to prove vital contributions of scores in the early teens while never looking totally settled, and the rest of the line-up perished to Dalugoda – who finished with a 5-11 return from 12.4 overs.

The match was clearly in the balance, despite the modest victory target, and Tom McQuinn, Simon Dawson and Morley made the vital early inroads with a wicket apiece.

That paved the way for the Travis Townsend show and five important points for Heywood.

Heywood

• R Paterson b Dalugoda 7
• R Cross c Patel b Maduwantha 23
• D Pawson lbw b Halton 21
• T Townsend c Hamnett b Halton 14
• J Morley b Maduwantha 11
• A Dawson b Maduwantha 13
• S Burrill b Dalugoda 6
• S Dawson b Dalugoda 1
• W Hunt lbw b Dalugoda 0
• M Witts not out 5
• T McQuinn c Pratt b Dalugoda 4
• Extras 11
• Total (49.4 overs) 116
• Fall of wickets: 1-12, 2-54, 3-60, 4-86, 5-88, 6-103, 7-107, 8-107, 9-110, 10-116
• Bowling: P Dickinson 7-1-19-0, A Dalugoda 12.4-5-11-5, W Halton 15-1-53-2, P Maduwantha 15-2-31-3

Egerton

• N Whitlow b McQuinn 8
• M Pratt b S Dawson 14
• P Maduwantha c Hunt b Townsend 8
• S De Silva lbw b Morley 0
• D Partington c Cross b Townsend 12
• D Dudley b Townsend 0
• W Halton b Townsend 1
• D Hamnett c A Dawson b Townsend 0
• A Dalugoda run out 1
• P Dickinson b Townsend 4
• A Patel not out 0
• Extras 9
• Total (28.2 overs) 57
• Fall of wickets: 1-19, 2-25, 3-26, 4-46, 5-46, 6-52, 7-52, 8-53, 9-57, 10-57
• Bowling T McQuinn 5-1-13-1, S Dawson 8-4-14-1, J Morley 9.2-3-22-1, T Townsend 6-1-7-6