South Manchester picked up their first silverware for many years when they defeated Sedgley Park in an exciting Twenty/20 match between the two unbeaten sides at Scholes field.
Sedgley won the toss, put South in to bat and were immediately on top. Veteran David Marks dismissed star batsman Loz Newman caught behind early on, leaving last year’s Player of the Year, Huddy Lieberman to shoulder the burden against some tight bowling by Marks who was not willing to give anything away and ended his four overs with 1 wicket for 13. Huddy Lieberman top-scored with 20 before miscuing a full toss from Davidi Neumann straight into the hands of David Rosenberg at mid-off, one of his three catches on the day. South were then struggling. An excellent spell by Jonny Wineberg (3 -12), the highlight of which was a slower ball to bowl South Captain, Barry Price, kept the runs down and the wickets tumbling. Eventually South ground their way to 100 due to a fine eighth wicket partnership between Steve Glicher and Andrew Feldman.
The total looked a little light but with South’s bowling being very economical this season, they believed they were in with a chance. Sedgley needed five an over but never kept up with the run rate. From the start of the innings, Jonny and Huddy Lieberman strangled the batting, giving away just 11 runs in the first six overs. Lieberman senior bowled through to end with two wickets costing five runs, while captain Barry Price cannily held back the last two of Huddy’s overs for the death- a move that proved decisive in the end.
Sedgley’s big-hitters Shia Rabinowitz and Jonny Wineberg (30, retired) made a valiant attempt at chasing the spiralling run rate, with Elliot Shiers and Harry Rosenblum bowling tidily to deny them. Needing 8.5 an over with four overs to go, their 50-run partnership was ended when Michael Basger bowled Rabinowitz. Sedgley required 11 off Huddy Lieberman’s last over to win. It was a big ask and, when Sedgley captain, Matt Glyn, stepped on his stumps reverse sweeping, it was all but over. With four wickets falling in the big slog over the last four overs, Sedgley were left on 92-8, leaving South to celebrate the win by eigh runs to capture the first trophy of the season.
