Local rivals battle out thrilling T20 tie

THE weekend's cricket action began on Friday evening at The Tony's Pizza and Kebab House Lanehead Cricket Ground when a very large crowd witnessed a exciting T20 match against local rivals Rawtenstall.

- NEAL WILKINSON & RICHARD PARTINGTON

After winning the toss, Bacup asked Rawtenstall to bat first, who were soon 39 for 3 with Lawrence Adlum again impressing with the ball, picking up all three wickets, including that of the Rawtenstall professional Anuk Fernando.

It was a fruitful fifth wicket partnership of 75 between Rizwan Shafiq (61) and Harry Etchells (28) which put Rawtenstall on track to post a decent total.

However, the Bacup professional Chirag Khurana took control in the latter stages and his excellent spell of 4 for 13 restricted the total to 136 for 8.

In a game where the winners would more than likely qualify for the quarter finals of the competition, there was plenty of drama to come as Bacup began the chase.

The Rawtenstall professional Fernando soon had the home team in trouble at 22 for 3 with Khurana, Jack Bradford and Dane Hargreaves all back in the pavilion. Adlum remained at the crease and was joined by Chris Gansler who looked to be in sparkling form.

However, having already hit Ben Sutcliffe for a six and a four in one over he went for one big shot too many and was caught on the mid wicket boundary.

He was quickly followed by Ball, Lord and Luke Bradford, who all went cheaply as Bacup were in deep trouble on 67 for 7, still 70 runs from victory.