ByDanny Caro, Danny Caro
A battling performance from Salford Jewish was not enough to save them from defeat against West Didsbury.
West Didsbury won the toss and decided to bat on a wet pitch. Opening bowlers Daniel Paul (2-25) and Jonny Wineberg (2-38) bowled good line and length, both finding swing and seam, and frustrated the opening batsmen. Paul had the West Didsbury captain out LBW for single figures, before Wineberg bowled the other opening batsman to leave West Didsbury on 39-2.
Shahzad steered West Didsbury towards a sizeable total, dancing down the pitch to hit all the bowlers around the ground.
Only Daniel Paul had any answer to him early on, narrowly missing the stumps as Shahzad misjudged the line of the ball.
West Didsbury moved on steadily until drinks but, in the first over after the return, Joshua Henry picked up two wickets in two balls and Salford were looking to get back on top.
However, Shazhad was in imperious form and kicked on from there destroying the Salford attack, before he was eventually out, mistiming a Zack Gothelf delivery straight to the safe hands of Robert Marks.
The tail then hit out, pushing the score up to an imposing 230.
Zevi Saunders and Daniel Paul opened the batting and both looked in good shape in the early overs before Paul scooped a dolly up to mid-off. A couple more quick wickets brought Wineberg to the crease where, with Saunders, they started to put some pressure on the West Didsbury bowling, putting on a 30-run partnership.
Wineberg (19) however tried one big shot to many and spooned a catch to mid-wicket. Jeremy Korn (30) then looked to carry on in the same vein hitting three consecutive fours. Saunders, meanwhile, was going along nicely hitting ones and twos into the gaps and rotating the strike nicely putting on a 55-run partnership with Korn.
But with 10 needed for Saunders to make his half century from the last over, he fell two short on a superbly accumulated and unbeaten 48, with Salford losing by 70 runs.
Salford took 12 bonus points from the match to Didsbury’s 8 but missed out on the 20 points for the win.
Salford's Jonny Wineburg said: "There are many positives to take away from this game; the fielding was outstanding, and the batting performance against a very decent bowling attack were things to be proud of.
"Next week Salford take on Olympic MSJ at home, where hopefully they can build on these positives to have an even better performance."