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After a convincing win against Mobberley two weeks ago, Sale slumped to a 9 wicket defeat at the hands of Tattenhall on Saturday.
Winning yet another toss Sale decided to bat first hoping to put another big score on the board, and the innings got of to a flying start with Jamaican Marshall hitting six boundaries in the first three overs. Marshall looked set for another big score until he set off for a suicidal second run and was run out for 26. The Sale batsmen then struggled against the Tattenhall bowling attack as they bowled well on a pitch that had some pace and bounce. Sale batsmen always seem to struggle against bounce as the ball never gets above knee height at the Clarendon Road ground. Azhar Butt batted steadily for his 27 but wickets fell at regular intervals which meant that a meaningful partnership was hard to come by. The Sale batting improved slightly in the second half of the innings with Peter Allum scoring 29 of only 37 balls in only his second innings of the year. Even the competition between the Halkon brothers at the end of the innings could not provide the much needed spark as they both finished with single figures to their name. The Sale innings finished on 155 when Jamil was caught in the final over.
The Sale team felt confident of defending their total as they have bowled well in every game this year, but the Tattenhall batsmen frustrated the Sale bowling attack by playing and missing without getting a nick to the awaiting Allum and Alderson behind the stumps. The Tattenhall openers then grew in confidence and played some attacking strokes off leg spinner Rick Halkon who had his first off day of the season but with some practice in the week the captain has every confidence he will return to his best. The Sale team threw everything at Tattenhall but only managed to take one wicket due to a mixture of bad luck and poor fielding, especially from captain Millward who seemed worried about his final exam on the following Monday. Tattenhall reached their target with 8 overs to spare and deserved their 25 points.
The team spirit in the dressing room is excellent and the team's heads never went down and everyone is looking ahead to this Saturday's fixture against Bollington for a return to form.
The most interesting part of the day came on the hour long journey home as 8 of the Sale team managed to squeeze themselves and their bulky, sweaty cricket kit into a Nissan Micra and Volkswagen Polo.
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