Burnley CC left frustrated by rain and defeat

Burnley had a frustrating weekend with a rained off game against Haslingden on Saturday and a narrow defeat to Nelson on Sunday.

On Saturday, the Turf Moor side travelled to Haslingden and were inserted into bat, and were quickly in trouble at 16-3.

And it could have been worse when professional Imad Wasim was dropped at first slip off his first ball.

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Having survived that chance, he had a good partnership with the consistent Chris Burton (38), who helped put on 80, and Michael Kelly continued the good progress.

Some late wickets fell, but with 10 overs left, the rain came, and for the forth time this season Burnley lost their last few overs to accelerate the scoring, especially with Wasim in on 59 not out.

Burnley were then up against it after a significant delay for rain, reducing it to 105 required off 26 overs.

With the ball like soap,, Graham Lalor and Wasim (1-26) bowled well in persistent drizzle which eventually forced the players off after 13 overs at 60-1 with it getting extremely dark, making fielding difficult, to leave both teams with three points each.

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On Sunday, hoping for better weather, Nelson travelled to Turf Moor, and with Burnley winning the toss, the hosts elected to bat on a slow and difficult wicket early on.

After a partnership of 30 off 10 overs, they lost young Josh Whitehead, run out, and this led to the home side being reduced to 37-3 and having to rebuild the innings with Burton (13) and Wasim (49).

The big partnership was worth 87 between Wasim and chairman Michael Brown (46), who was playing his last game this season for the club, but with 10 overs left the rain came again.

This time only two overs were lost and the acceleration came to make a competitive 162. In reply, the opening bowling partnership of Lalor (1-29 off nine) and Mortimer (1-26, including the dangerous Kashif Siddique) made inroads. But Nelson kept building partnerships throughout the innings, despite the home side bowling and fielding well.

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Wickets were shared with Wasim (1-45 off 14 overs), James Capstick (1-19) and captain Steve Brunt (1-15 off six) bowling economically. But it wasn’t enough as Nelson got home with two overs to go.

With only three weekends and five games to go, Burnley host Church on Saturday and travel to Enfield on Sunday.

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