Sale Eagles v Didsbury Buffaloes

The day after the nation had gone to the polls, some order was restored to the chaos last night. After a week of April showers, Friday afternoon gave way to a lovely summer's evening in the constituency of Sale for the u13's league match between Didsbury Buffaloes and Sale Eagles, said to be a talonted side.

Didsbury elected to bat first in this opening match of the new league campaign.

Basil immediately set to work, stampeding to an imperious 31 not out. Ben did a sound opener's job, conservatively occupying the crease before unluckily losing his seat after playing on to a good delivery for 2. Finn played with good control, making a very solid 10 at number 3 before being undone by a straight one. Rehan had a feisty knock of 14, including a liberal sprinkling of boundaries, ended by a nifty bit of keeping off a leg side wide and a stumping. Michael was unlucky to get an early straight one after a couple of good singles. Noah then batted with conviction for 9 and was unfortunate to be run out. Adam came in at the end of the innings and put on a quick 7 not out in coalition with James (1 not out). In their allotted 20 overs, the Buffaloes reached 101-5.

Basil immediately clipped the Eagles' wings with a beauty in the second over, then thought he had a second victim trapped lbw after the whole field went up for a vociferous appeal, including particularly convincing shouts from Finn at mid-wicket and Adam on the boundary. Ben looked very sharp behind the stumps, executing one particularly impressive move by parrying with his left hand before removing his right glove, pirouetting and throwing down the stumps with his right in one seamless swooping movement. The fielding generally was sharp, Michael, Noah and Isaac chasing down likely boundaries and returning strong throws to the wicket.

Rehan and Seb came on as respective first changes and bowled very tightly - Rehan bowled 2 parsimonious overs for just a couple of runs and Seb similarly giving away just 4 off his last 12 balls, including picking up a cracking and vital wicket with a good full delivery.

At the halfway point in their innings, the Eagles were hovering at 42-2.

Sale laboured to 51 before, in the 14th over, James, who was steaming in, sent the bails to (Plaid) Cymru to reduce the hosts to 51-3.

Noah swung in a cracker to dislodge the batsman's the leg side wicket to leave Sale floundering at 60-4 with 4 overs left. On to the stage strode Zain, who removed the Eagles' hirsute dangerman for 19 with a full and straight whizzer, followed by an identical delivery with his next ball. There was great anticipation for Zain's hat trick ball – and ..... BOOM! A plumb LBW saw Zain mobbed by his ecstatic team mates and Sale collapsing at 60-7, with four wickets lost in quick succession for 0 runs.

Sale tried to rally, but Zain duly picked up his fourth to make it 79-8. Isaac came on and pinned the Eagles down, almost creating a run out and then seeing off Sale's no 9 with a quick stumping by Ben (80-9). A final run out by Isaac did for Sale's Number 10 and the Buffaloes were first past the post with 21 runs to spare.

So, whilst the rest of the country contemplates a hung parliament, this was a landslide victory for the Buffaloes, who now go into next week's crunch derby in bullish mood.