IT WAS a case of blaming ‘the man upstairs’ as Ellesmere Port fell to a home defeat to Wirral in the Cheshire Alliance on Saturday.
After posting a first victory of the season against Stalybridge St Paul’s the previous weekend, it was hoped that the momentum would carry on – but the weather was to play a significant role.
Losing the toss, Ellesmere Port were put in to bat first on a wet wicket and quickly found the going tough. Fahad Khan did start to find his rhythm and posted a score of 34, alongside Stuart Daniels’ effort of 24.
The total came to 140-8, a score captain Gareth Boys was content with considering conditions.
That was before the sun came out, drying the wicket, swinging the balance completely in favour of the visiting side. Wirral made light work of reaching their target, winning the match with 143-2 in 22.5 overs.
Boys said: “We wanted to keep the ball rolling but the wheels just came off. We had a reasonable score and good bowlers for the wicket.
“Then the man upstairs decided it was not to be. It made a decent pitch and definitely helped make it easy to bat for the opposition – it was there to be hit every time.”
Looking forward, Boys added “It’s a real shame but everyone is in good spirits and we have to just draw a line under this one.”
Port travel to Hartford on Saturday (2pm).
