Measure of S&B's progress in draw

IN case you had not noticed, Dean Skelton’s main objective for his players this season is that they should play good cricket and enjoy themselves.

- BY PAUL EDWARDS

If promotion back to the ECB Premier League comes along in September, so be it, but that will create problems over the close season and into next summer.

Nevertheless, it says something about the progress Southport and Birkdale have already made in the first month of the campaign that they dominated Saturday's match against a well-resourced Liverpool team whose explicit aim is to return to Merseyside cricket's top table.

Rather than risk his players being trampled down by a side that had won all its four games, Skelton opted to bat first and saw his batsmen put together a competitive 196 all out in 59 overs.

In reply, Liverpool mustered 102 for eight and were only spared further embarrassment by a defiant ninth-wicket partnership between Joe Boland and Adam Stringer.

It is no criticism of Jared Clein’s side that they pulled up the drawbridge when victory was beyond their grasp with a dozen of the last twenty overs still to be bowled, but the home side’s decision to settle for the draw does reflect the balance of the contest

"It was so pleasing that we did the basics right and there were some great positives to take from the match,” said Skelton. “I’m more than happy that we played all the cricket on Saturday but it was just a shame that we couldn’t get over the line at the end.”

The second half of the game had a familiar look to it. The spin bowling of Muhammad Kashif and Bobby Wincer seems almost certain to be a theme of S&B's season and it was little surprise that the pair took seven of the eight wickets to fall on Saturday.