‘Cup final’ in the Comp’s basement as Whitefield and Prestatyn battle to avoid wooden spoon

The battle at the bottom of the Love Lane Liverpool Competition is hotting up, with table-proppers Prestatyn hosting their nearest rivals, Whitefield, tomorrow.

Neither side have tasted victory since May; the Welsh side won their second and third matches by a combined total of nine runs, while the Roby outfit recorded two victories over the Bank Holiday weekend.

Both are suffering from notable absences – Prestatyn’s Indian slow left-armer Aarya Jadhav has had to return home for personal reasons, while the best batter in Whitefield’s promotion season last year, the classy Harsh Shonak, signed for Rainford within three weeks of the season starting.

Their head-to-head encounter in June was rained off – so for Prestatyn skipper Andy Taylor, tomorrow is something of a leap into the unknown.

But he’s determined that his side will lift themselves off the bottom.

He said: “We hope to still be in this division next year, and we’re going to fight for the next six weeks or so to make sure of it.

“We really back ourselves to get out of this situation. 

“We’ve still got four home games to go, having done a lot of travelling in the first half of the season, and we’ve had a couple more games called off than most teams. 

“We’ve been a little bit unlucky in that respect, but we’re hoping to turn it around.”

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For his opposite number, Whitefield skipper Shahbaz Ahmed, it’s time to dig deep and produce one of the oldest cliches in the book.

“It’s like a cup final,” he said. 

The transition to the Comp from the Southport league – all amateur, at least on paper, and limited overs – is always a challenging one.

Whitefield have at times struggled to find the right balance for their side, but Ahmed believes he’s cracked it now.

He added: “We started the season with seven, eight or nine bowlers because that was our strength in the Southport league. 

“But our strength became a weakness. Some teams have two or three bowlers and the rest are all batters.

“In the last two or three weeks, we’ve got the balance right. There are availability problems which there always are, but I think we’ve got it right.

“We’ve got the quality. We’ve realised how different batting is in this league compared to Southport. 

“We haven’t been getting over the line, but I think this is our time now.”

Ahmed admits the loss of Shonak, without time to replace him, was a blow.

He said: “Any young player would want to play in the Premier Division – I would do it if I were that player. 

“But he would have won us three or four games, and that’s the difference between us and the teams in the middle.”

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For Prestatyn, Jadhav has taken 40 wickets, including 9/54 in defeat against Sutton, having approached the near-impossible task of replacing Sampath Perera with gusto. 

But without him, Taylor accepts his side has a hole in it.

“It’s one of those things,” he added.

“He’s only a young lad and he had to make that decision, and we supported him. 

“He left on good terms, but we could have done with him. 

“We’ve struggled with the bat this year and had to rely on our bowlers. 

“Adam Tidswell has really stepped up – for a seamer, he bowls a hell of a lot of overs. 

“Some days he doesn’t get his reward but he’s been really tidy all year – I’d say he’s been the standout for me.”

from Merseyside Cricket Online https://ift.tt/ZFu3RiO