On Thursday evening, the Clifton hordes travelled to StandCC to see a masterclass in six hitting from Ali Hassan, grabbing victory fromthe jaws of defeat for the 1s. A couple of days later, it was the turn ofClifton to welcome Stand's 2nd XI under blue skies yet again, as this earlysummer heatwave continued.
After Macca lost the toss for the 748th time in succession,the Stand skipper opted to have a bat, a decision that didn't look too cleverwhen they found themselves 2/2 after just 13 balls, with Sas (2-22 from 7) andTom (1-14 from 7) picking up one each from really poor shots straight tofielders. Stand began to rebuild, and it took until the 14th over - and thelast from Sas' spell - for the 3rd wicket to fall when the No.4 heard the deathrattle behind him.
39/3 quickly became 41/4 with the introduction of OscarThorpe (2-15 from 5) down the hill, thanks to an outstanding one-handed catchfrom Sas low to the ground. In his next over, Oscar clattered the stumps, andit was looking ominous when Dunny (1-19 from 6) then picked up his first scalpin the next over to leave the visitors 56/6.
Tight spells from Dan (0-15 from 6) and Ethan Kite (1-15from 6) contained the visitors, but it was the introduction of Owen Hogben(3-14 from 5) that wrapped up the first innings to leave Clifton with a targetof 122, which was never going to be enough with the depth of the home battingline up.
Macca and Ethan stepped out with confidence and got thechase off to a flyer, with every bad ball - and there were plenty - being sentto the boundary or over it. The 6th over being smashed for 20 pretty muchkilled the game as a contest, as Macca went 4, 6, 4, 6 in succession in anexhibition of clean ball striking. A passing comment from a few visitingsupporters of "these are miles too good for us" summed it up nicely.
The runs continued to flow, with Clifton 97 without lossbefore McManus (55) flicked one to square leg to end a brutal innings. 7 ballslater, Ethan (35) followed him back to the shed after a fine knock. With only22 required to win with about 80 overs left to do it, the hosts managed to losea couple more wickets in Owen (7) and Lewis (4) before the chase was wrapped upby Dan (8*) and Sam (0*).
A comfortable win for the 2s and gets them back on trackafter a disappointing defeat at Heywood last weekend.