The NJCL Rep Team maintained their excellent record with a hard fought victory over Ladybridge.
On a warm and breezy day in Cheadle, skipper David Glick lost the toss and the NJCL were invited to bat on a soft, damp track.
With a strong batting line up NJCL opened with veteran Harry Rosenblum and Shaia Rabinowitz.
Having been beaten soundly twice by NJCL already this season, Ladybridge CC opted for a much stronger line up in order to try an make a game of it and opened the bowling with Mo and Scott Pearn. The first four overs were maidens, with Mo in particular swinging the ball both ways.
When Rabinowitz tried to get the team under way in the fifth over, he skied a pull to Mo at deep square Leg and NJCL were 0-1 after five overs.
Steven Allweis joined Rosenblum at the crease and the first run was scored in the sixth over.
Disaster struck in the seventh when Rosenblum holed out for a duck and NJCL were in real trouble at 1-2 after seven overs bowled.
Akiva Lieberman joined Allweis at the crease and the pair steadily made progress with Allweis playing the anchor role while Lieberman attempted to hit the ball to all parts of Cheshire.
The pair put on 35 runs in testing conditions before Lieberman was caught going for another big shot having scored a creditable 23 on a pudding of a track.
Wickets continued to tumble and with the departure of Allweis for 21, NJCL were wobbling at 56-7.
Captain Glick then unleashed his secret weapon. Daniel Paul, batting at nine, was given the freedom to play his natural game and started to take apart the bowling with some powerful hitting including the shot of the day, a beautifully driven straight four that had the crowd on their feet.
A fantastic 40 run partnership with Shua Dansky for the 8th wicket pushed the total towards three figures before Paul departed for a fine 23 with two overs to go. Some quick running and scrambled singles ensured that NJCL reached the 35 over mark at 112-9.
With eight bowlers at his disposal, Glick opted to open the reply with Lieberman and himself. This paid dividends as both bowled accurately and dangerously with Lieberman in particular showing some serious pace and control. After their opening nine-over burst Ladybridge were 4-1 with Lieberman’s opening spell of four consecutive hostile maidens applauded by both sets of players.
Daniel Franks took over from Lieberman and Steven Allweis from Glick and the change worked almost immediately with Allweis collecting his first wicket of 3-27 in a great seven over spell which showed why he continues to dazzle the opposition with his flight and turn.
With wickets falling at regular intervals and the score being kept down, this looked like another easy victory for the NJCL boys.
Enter Scott Pearn for Ladybridge. After an early scare, Scott started to put bat to ball and even though he was running out of partners with Rabinowitz bowling well for his two wickets, the game started to get tighter. Daniel Paul was again the catalyst for NJCL. Having earlier starred with the bat, he bowled a magnificent spell of 4-1-3-6.
This left the last pair for Ladybridge needing 40 plus runs off four overs.
After the pair plundered 17 off two, and with Ladybridge needing 23 to tie the game, Glick brought himself and Lieberman back for the last two overs.
Some accurate bowling saw the pair take just four off Glick’s last over and it was left to Lieberman to bowl the final over with Ladybridge needing more off one over than Akiva has conceded all season.
The first two balls were dispatched for boundaries and the game was getting tenser. Finally, Pearns and Wood took one too many liberties and going for a suicidal run were run out by the combination of Tammam and Liberman to leave Ladybridge at 100 all out.
After a wobbly start, the NJCL boys showed what they are capable of with some determined batting, disciplined bowling and great fielding.
A great game and played in a fantastic spirit all round.
With some good all round performances from all the team, Glick named Daniel Paul as his man of the match for his game changing innings and his ability to pick up wickets at vital times.
A half century from Akiva Lieberman helped the NCL beat Styal by 37 runs in a Twenty20 match.
On a gloomy evening in Cheshire the toss was going to be crucial to the outcome of this game. NJCL won it and decided to bat. In the good light the NJCL openers cashed in putting on 51 for the first wicket in eight overs. Natan Fagleman was the first to go, bowled for 25 and just like London buses, one quickly became two when Zevi Saunders got a nasty lifter that caught the gloves from Marshall and was out for 18.
This brought Lieberman to the crease and he batted superbly, hitting eight fours on his way to 53 not out as NJCL finished on an 134-4.
In reply, needing nearly seven an over, Styal got off to a great start with Marshall crashing Adam Schogger to the boundary first ball and carried on in that vein. However Jonny Lieberman worked him over with four overs for 11 runs and off his last ball had him caught behind attempting a big hit. Adam Goldstone also bowled superbly finishing with 1-11 off his four overs to finish off any hopes Styal had of winning the game.
Eventually NJCL ran out winners by 37 runs.
Results:
NJCL Rep Team 112-9
Ladybridge 100 all out
NJCL won by 12 runs
T20 match:
NJCL 134-4 Akiva Lieberman 53 not out, Natan Fagleman 25
Styal 97-6
NJCL won by 37 runs