Northern beat Leigh in Men’s Knockout Cup Final
Trafalgar Road played host to Northern Cricket Club and Leigh Cricket Club on Sunday for the Lancashire Cricket Foundation Knock Out Trophy Final.
The two Liverpool and District Cricket Competition sides won four previous rounds to reach the final at the home of Southport and Birkdale Cricket Club, with Northern running out convincing winners to lift the trophy.
Northern, who won the toss and elected to bat first, used the opening overs to lay the foundations. Openers Liam Grey and Stephen Lucas (14) put on 39 for the first wicket, before the latter was bowled by Adam Shallcross.
That brought Grey and Louis Bhabra to the crease, and it was that partnership that helped Northern really get on top of the game.
The pair put on 69 from 106 balls, with Bhabra taking on the aggressor role in the partnership, hitting 37 from just 46 balls. When Northern’s number three fell with 10.5 overs left in their innings, the score had moved along to 108, with his side well placed to kick on.
The standout knock of their innings came from the blade of Grey, who played his anchor role so well. He put on another important partnership of 35 with the talented Shivy Gautam (11) for the 3rd wicket and was a thorn in the Leigh side throughout.
Grey ended up unbeaten on a superb 85 off 133 balls, including nine boundaries. He played a key role in helping get his side up to a strong score of 182-6 off their 40 overs.
The standout bowler for Leigh was surely opener and captain Patrick Allen, who bowled an economical eight-over spell, going for 22 runs, and taking the wicket of Gautam.
Chasing a sizeable total, Leigh got through the first 10 overs of their innings without losing a wicket, but things started to unravel when opener Luke Prescott was run out by Ben Edmundson for 12. Five balls later, Edward Brewer was stumped off the bowling of Daniel Wilson, leaving Leigh 29-2 from 12 overs.
Leigh soon lost their other opener Tom Grundy, who was caught by Bhabra for 22 off the bowling of Cameron Sawatzky, before former Lancashire player Karl Brown was dismissed by Sawatzky in his next over.
Wilson got back in on the act again, dismissing Ben Smith and Harry Church at the end and beginning of back-to-back overs that he bowled, to leave Northern’s opponents 45-6 in the 22nd over. He finished with superb figures of 3-16 from eight overs.
After his heroics with the bat, it seemed only right that Grey should have his say with ball in hand, too. He had Archie Brown and Bradley Barrow both caught by Bhabra in the space of three balls.
Bhabra himself picked up a wicket, before Matthew Laker had Shallcross out caught to seal the win for Northern. Their 117-run win was one of dominance, putting their Liverpool and District Cricket Competition rivals to the sword to lift the title on the coast.
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