George Wall was a hero with the bat for the under-15s
Danny James and George Wall were the heroes in a nerve-jangling victory for Heywood under-15s on Friday.
Clifton were the visitors to Heywood, and they were restricted to just 91 off their 20 overs, with Heywood generally fielding and bowling well. Pick of the bowlers were Morgan Kay (2-23) and Keelan Nugent (2-20).
This should have been a comfortable chase for Heywood, but at 26-4 and with some serious collapses behind them, things looked grim.
James and Wall didn’t think so.
With Wall finding gaps with ease and James smashing anything short for fours both sides of the wicket, they turned Heywood’s fortunes around with a magnificent partnership of 60.
They ran excellently, after some early warnings, and it was unfortunate that Wall holed out for an excellent 27 that should give him great confidence.
James showed he is a star of the future and deservedly walked off to loud applause on an unbeaten 30.
But with just six required, Heywood lost their cool and slumped to 91-9 with Shoeb Zahid and Jacob Ellis at the crease and three overs left.
Zahid showed commendable cool to play back the 18th over for a maiden, and it was left to Ellis to win the match for Heywood. This he did by blocking the first five balls and then hitting a single off the last ball of the over for victory. It was his first run for Heywood and followed up his match-winning stop in the field the week before.
Clifton 91 (Kay 2-23, Nugent 2-20, Cunliffe 30 no)
Heywood 91-9 (James 30 no, Wall 27, Kay 14, Dorsey 4-10)
