Bennett bowls Rochdale over

Middleton Cricket Club

A resilient half century from Middleton cricketer Rob Bennett and an excellent bowling and fielding performance ensured safe passage for the Middleton second eleven to the second round of the Burton Cup.

Batting first, Bennett was the stand out performer, top scoring with 61, but he struggled to find any meaningful support from his team with only Gareth Hughes (29) and Tom Astley (20) putting up any meaningful resistance as Middleton were all out for 173.

In reply, Rochdale got off to a good start and found themselves 55 for one off 11 overs.

The introduction of Steve Holmes into the attack proved to be the spark Middleton needed. He had an instant impact, taking the wickets of the dangerous, Ian Helliwell and Paul Butterworth in his first over.

An over later, Gareth Hughes claimed the key wicket of Kabir Ahmed, as Tom Astley took a sharp catch behind as Rochdale lost three wickets without adding to the total.

Maz Mohammed and Faried Fawad set about rebuilding the innings, but with the overs ebbing away they were finding the run rate required growing and wickets began falling.

Ian Gilbertson gave Rochdale a glimmer of hope with a belligerent 39 not out, but he eventually ran out of partners when Mo Shahid claimed the wicket of Will Avery and Rochdale were all out for 147.