Mobberley 3rd XI 177 for 8

Sale 3rd XI 150 for 9

Mobberley lost the toss and were put in to bat by Sale.

The openers looked solid enough for the first 12 overs when Chris Blake was dismissed for 29.

On an extremely hot day, playing at a huge ground, runs were hard to acquire.

As few fours were scored players had to run to increase the total.

That is what was done for the next 15 overs when Steve Pritchard was run out on a well-deserved 46, leaving Mobberley at 106 for 2 from 27 overs.

Few runs were then put on over the next eight or so overs due to some fine bowling from Sale but 160 was needed from the first 40 overs to secure Mobberley's full batting points.

Jon Bentley then accelerated the pace, helped by Josh Northover and Tony Blake, to seal the points in the 39th over.

Jon was then bowled on 45 and another 17 runs were scored in the remaining five overs, leaving Mobberley with a good score of 177.

Mobberley knew from Sale's record that if they failed to start well they had several batsmen down the order who would be very hard to get out and a draw could be likely.

All effort was therefore put in to taking early wickets and have time to bowl at those lower down the order.

An excellent start saw Andy Towers and Chris Blake take quick wickets, giving Mobberley the upper hand as Sale were on 16 for 3 from just five overs.

The pursuit of wickets, though, then led to a quick flurry of runs and at 29 overs Sale were well in with a chance of winning on 112 for 4.

Pat Winnegar was bowling economically (10-4-19-1) but runs were slipping through elsewhere until Chris Blake started a new spell.

More or less instantly he took the wicket of Sale's most productive batsmen so far who was on 66, through a catch blasted to Jon Bentley in the covers.

Chris continued to bowl, taking wickets regularly, one via a difficult catch to Andy Towers and four bowled giving him outstanding figures of 12 overs, two maidens, 6 wickets for 34 runs.

Sale were now on 148 for 9 with 3 overs left and had consigned themselves to a draw at best.

Mobberley almost took the game with the last ball of the match being caught at leg slip by Nick Bentley but unfortunately the ball was adjudged to have bounced into the ground before popping up for the catch.

Mobberley took home 17 points from the winning draw, which should bump them up a place in the standings to sixth position.