Sidley pay price for lack of runs

SIDLEY suffered only their second defeat of the Sussex Division Two season at the hands of Worthing as they paid the price for a lack of runs on Saturday.

Even on a green wicket that offered plenty of lateral movement for the bowlers, Sidley would have been hoping for a total of at the very least 180 having won the toss.

Their score of 139, the result of a striking collapse from 126-4, was nowhere near enough even with the tight bowling of Tyrone Wildman, Rizwan Ahmed and the excellent Peter King.

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"They bowled well," said captain Eddie Daniels, "but from 126-4, you would expect to get a bit more than 139 all out. It was a bit disappointing that we couldn't build on the work we had done (in the middle order) because we looked quite well set for a good score and 200, on that wicket, would have been very competitive. Maybe the batting didn't quite have the depth you would expect, particularly the tail, which didn't wag as we would have liked."

And that was probably what cost Sidley a genuine chance of victory because, after losing openers Scott Woodroffe and Wildman early, Rizwan (68), King (19) and Chris Hunnisett (30) had put them into a reasonable position.

But Sidley fought well with the ball, offering their hosts relatively few run-scoring opportunities and tying them down for a sustained period.

Worthing kept their wickets in hand, but it wasn't until the 14th over that they actually reached a run rate of two per over.

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King's probing eventually proved too much for David Marshallsay, who lofted to Chris Milton in the covers for 33, but overseas player Blayne Cornford came in and hammered several delightful boundaries to quickly make a significant dent in the target.

He was bowled off an inside edge straight after changing bats, though, and a couple of quick wickets at that stage would have left Sidley in with a glimmer of hope.

But Ben Shelford (75 not out) kept going and, although King (3-61) and Rizwan took a further wicket apiece, Worthing crossed the line in the 40th over for the loss of four wickets.

Daniels continued: "We made them work hard for it in so much as we bowled very tightly and Peter King bowled exceptionally well, but without any luck whatsoever because he beat the bat on a number of occasions. It wasn't our day as far as I was concerned."

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