Frustration for Netherfield as St Annes hold them to winning draw (From The Westmorland Gazette)

Frustration for Netherfield as St Annes hold them to winning draw

8:30pm Monday 2nd July 2012 in Sport By Scott Kirk, Reporter

NETHERFIELD moved down to fourth in the table just a point ahead of bitter rivals Kendal in a frustrating winning draw against St Annes.

South African Cobus Pienaar opened with Marc Brown at Vernon Road, but he could only manage four runs as Mitchell Bolus caught him off St Annes pro Dinuka Hettiarachchi.

Chris Williams departed for 23 and Brown 11 to leave Netherfield in a tricky position of 42-3.

But Netherfield’s middle order came up trumps as John Huck and John Mason (46) put on a 61-run partnership.

Ben Haddrick batted into some form with 33, putting on a partnership of 65 with Huck to make it 168-5 before his dismissal, and Chris Parry hit three consecutive sixes off Sri Lankan Hettiarchchi on his way to 31.

Huck was 79 not out as Netherfield posted an impressive 238-6 off 49 overs, with 12 minutes lost to rain.

Atiq uz-Zaman was the only batsman to come out with any real credit in St Annes’ reply as their innings was cut to 45 overs because of the weather.

The Pakistani right-hander scored 84 off 88 balls and he helped St Annes get off to a good start with Andy Kellett as they posted a 55-run partnership.

Nathan Chambers got a couple of quick wickets (2-10) as Netherfield changed the bowling order throughout the innings and the home side went down to 59-2 before Chambers got injured.

Uz-Zaman and number four Duncan Whalley (13) put on 45 to take the home side up to 104-3.

It was then a case of St Annes batting for a draw as Pienaar’s good bowling carried on, claiming 4-38, and he was the one who got uz-Zaman out with Williams catching.

But uz-Zaman had already done the damage and St Annes finished on 167-8.

Netherfield claimed nine points from the winning draw, including three batting bonus points and two bowling bonus points, while St Annes earned four points - two bonuses for their batting and one for their bowling.