Lowerhouse v Burnley (Twenty20)

Lowerhouse made it two out of two over Burnley this season with a thumping victory on Friday night at the Neville Gee (Recruitment) Arena.

On a fairly pleasant evening, the hosts batted first and lost an early wicket with Ben Heap departing for just 1. After this, though, Jonny Whitehead and Cobus Pienaar took control. Whitehead, in particular, was producing some monster hitting towards the Liverpool Road end (Graham Lalor and Chris Holt especially getting some major punishment). The 19 year old reached his half century off just 26 balls but didn’t go much further as he was out for 53, a great return to form. Pienaar continued the good work by posting an impressive 44. Declan Bailey (20), Matt Walker (31) and Charlie Cottam (24) also kept the momentum going with boundaries aplenty as Lowerhouse posted a mighty total of 191/7 off their 20 overs.

Burnley in response made a slow start and as soon as Joe Hawke came on as first change, their chances of winning decreased dramatically. He blitzed through Chris Holt (18), Dan Pickup (16), Bharat Tripathi (10), Brunt (2) and Burton (7) to post fantastic figures of 5/21 off his 4 overs. Ben Heap then came on and took 2 in 2 balls including sending Cole Hayman’s stumps flying for a golden duck, which he seemed to enjoy quite a lot. Paddy Martin (1/27 off 4 overs) and Fergus Bailey got rewarded for their bowling with a wicket each (Martin getting rid of Josh Whitehead for 10 and Bailey bowling out Aiden Tate for 9) before Heap completed the rout by dismissing Lalor for 22 (the most impressive of the visitors’ batters) ending with 3/16 (very good cup bowling once again) as Burnley were bowled out for 105 after 17.4 overs to give Lowerhouse an 86 run victory, their highest margin in Twenty20 group matches to date. A excellent display overall from the home side.

MOM was Jonny Whitehead for his 53.