Finals day ends with galling loss

An excellent attacking fifty from Netherfield’s Rik Potter sunk Lancaster’s hopes of twenty20 silverware at Lune Road on Sunday.

After the previous week’s abandonment due to bad weather – the two teams returned but the game did not prove to be a competitive affair.

The Lunesiders opened up well with Rameez Raja and Lee Sparks as 17 came from the opening over. But once Sparks departed caught behind to Dieter Klein in the third over runs became tougher to come by.

Raja kept up the pressure with a couple of boundaries but couldn’t build on his start holing out off Nathan Chambers for 21.

Jamie Heywood held the Lunesiders innings together picking off ones and twos into the outfield in his 52-ball 45 but wickets fell at the other end.

Charlie Swarbrick and Kieran Moffat made handy cameos with Heywood but both were guilty of careless strokes to hand Bradley Earl two soft wickets.

Sam Moorby played foil to a tiring Heywood with a quickfire 18 but he too suffered a similar fate to his teammates holing out in the deep.

Ben Simm and Heywood pushed the total to 135 with Heywood bowled behind his legs by Chambers off the final ball.

Defending a total that looked 20 runs shy, Lancaster needed to bowl tightly. Despite only 1 run coming from Liam Moffat’s opening over, Rik Potter took 17 from Dan Chambers in the second putting Netherfield straight on the front foot.

Moffat removed Brad Earl the following over but Potter was merciless at the other end. Simm tried to rotate his bowlers to no avail as Dieter Klein and Potter moved at ten-an-over with ease.

By the time Klein was run out by a Rameez Raja throw from the deep the game had gone for the Lunesiders.

Potter brought up his fifty as Netherfield eased past the hundred mark. John Huck at four put the final nail in the Lunesiders’ coffin with a 15-ball 23 before he was stumped off Simm with two required.

Netherfield skipper Marc Brown had the honour of striking Moffat over mid-off for the winning runs as the visitors won their third consecutive finals day with more than five overs to spare.