Farhaan Behardien made an excellent 92

Heywood put Saturday’s below-par performance behind them to crush Werneth at the Coppice.

The newly-promoted Oldham side are finding life tough having stepped up a division, and were made to feel even more ill-at-ease thanks to a solid innings from new pro Farhaan Behardien.

The South African international is still finding his feet at Crimble, but showed admirable restraint and sticking power to fall eight short of what would have been an excellent 100.

He was well backed up by Bobby Cross (42), vice-captain Dale Latham (14) and captain Danny Pawson (43), with whom Behardien shared a third-wicket stand of 88.

His 92 was the backbone of the innings, but pleasing to see was some good late batting from Riley Paterson and Wes Hunt, the latter hitting two big sixes in the final over to help Heywood to 240 off their 50 overs.

Despite a good start from overseas Thompson – who saw off the opening spell of Paterson and Behardien – wickets started to fall when Naeem came on.

Two of his wickets owed plenty to the hands of Latham, who added another splendid catch off Chris Kaye to the two belters he took from Naeem.

Joe Lovell – back from stag-dos and other young people’s activities – picked up four middle order wickets with his increasingly promising off-breaks, and with two wickets also for Dawson and a couple of catches from Bobby Cross, Werneth got nowhere near and were dismissed for just 129.

A fine five points for Heywood.

HEYWOOD
R Cross c Rauf b Z Khan 42
D Latham b R Khan 14
D Pawson c Thompson b Rauf 43
F Berhardien c Z Khan b R Khan 92
A Dawson c Z Khan b R Khan 8
R Paterson not out 22
W Hunt not out 15
Extras 4
Total (for 5 wkts, 50 overs) 240
Fall of wickets: 1-59, 2-59, 3-147, 4-163, 5-209
Bowling: M Khan 6-1-17-0, Rauf 12-4-38-1, Muzzafar 3-0-19-0, Z Khan 14-1-82-1, R Khan 15-0-82-3
WERNETH
L Thompson c Latham b Naeem 40
M Taylor c Latham b Kaye 13
Z Khan c Latham b Naeem 18
A Muzzafar c Pawson b Naeem 4
Z Tahir c Behardien b A Dawson 30
James Taylor lbw b Lovell 5
M Khan c Cross b Lovell 0
A Walker c Pawson b A Dawson 4
R Khan c Cross b Lovell 1
A Rauf lbw b Lovell 1
S Niaz not out 0
Extras 11
Total (41 overs) 129
Fall of wickets: 1-35, 2-75, 3-39, 4-85, 5-103, 6-103, 7-116, 8-117, 9-127, 10-129
Bowling: Paterson 5-1-23-0, Behardien 6-1-13-0, Kaye 11-1-31-1, Naeem 7-0-29-3, Lovell 7-2-13-4, A Dawson 5-1-20-2

Humza Naeem’s side earned their place in the final after the marvellous victory at Walsden on Friday, when they successfully chased down the home side’s target of 148.

They lost to the Oldham side earlier in the season, but at Crimble, and with good home support, it should be a cracker of a game.

The match starts as close to 6pm as possible,