Milnrow v Royton - Wood Cup First Round

A magnificent bowling performance by Royton's Liam Brown was not enough to help his side to progress into the second round of the Wood Cup on Sunday as Milnrow beat Royton by 19 runs.

In a low scoring encounter, Brown claimed 7 wickets for 30 runs from 8.3 overs to bowl Milnrow out for 115.

Last season's finalists were then bowled out for 96 in their reply as man of the match, Babar Naeem followed up his 56 runs with the bat with 3 wickets for 9 runs to lead his side to victory.

Milnrow won the toss and elected to bat first on another tricky batting track. They started brightly as Naeem and Bartley (14) guided the home team past the 50 mark in the 14th over.

From a great position of 86-1, Milnrow lost Babar and Power (14) in quick succession and Brown then ran riot with the ball. A total of 115 appeared to be well below par despite the bowler friendly conditions.

Royton were hot favourites as they began their reply well, reaching 39-1 after 13 overs. But the wicket of Chris McDonnell, caught by Max Power behind the stumps off the bowling of Declan Wilkinson marked the turning point in the game.

Wilkinson, who is still only 16 years old, bowled with great maturity (2-15 off 10 overs) as he helped Milnrow to turn the screw.

Naeem then accounted for his opposite number as Royton's professional Mohammed Zaman Khan (11) completed a miserable weekend with the bat as he was caught by Alex Bartley.

Accurate bowling from Ali Muzaffer (2-19), Mohammed Jehangir (1-22) and Dean Lord (0-14) ensured Royton could only find the boundary on five occasions.

Milnrow seized the initiative as the tide began to turn in their favour.

Naeem's captaincy was simply superb as he moved his fielders into place as if they were pieces on a chess board. His final move was to position himself on the long-off boundary and sure enough, former Milnrow player Adam Good lofted the ball straight into his hands off the bowling of Ali Muzaffer as Milnrow booked themselves a home fixture against Heywood in the second round.

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