Rochdale end Milnrow's title hopes

Rochdale CC v Milnrow CC

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Rochdale all but ended Milnrow's hopes of winning the Central Lancashire League title with an impressive all round performance, the highlight of which was a superb stand of 96 by Ayers and Faulkner.

Milnrow, starting favourites, put Rochdale in to bat and quickly got amongst the wickets and had Rochdale reeling on just 71 runs for six wickets when Ayers and Faulkner dug in to help lead Rochdale to an unlikely total of 181 all out in 49 overs.

Milnrow’s fielding did not help their cause, with three potential catches dropped.

The scoreboard pressure told on Milnrow and they lost their first two wickets in the same bizarre manner with their batsmen run out at the non-strike end as the bowler tapped the ball onto the wicket with the batsmen out of the crease.

Wickets then fell with alarming regularity for Milnrow as the Rochdale bowlers kept the pressure up and the fielders made life even more difficult, the pick of the play being a superb catch at midwicket by Helliwell to send Milnrow pro Kuldeep Dirwan back to the pavilion just when he had started to look dangerous.

As desperation set in, the Milnrow lower order swung wildly with the bat and made it easy for Rochdale to pick them off.

Rochdale had Milnrow all out for just 85 in 36 overs with Skuse taking three wickets and Avery four wickets.