LONDON: England’s cricketers may have suffered the embarrassment of a World Twenty20 defeat by the Netherlands and a 5-0 Ashes thrashing in Australia but even they were never bowled out for three as happened to one club side on Saturday.
Wirral, from north-west England, were dismissed for just three away to Haslington in a Cheshire League Third Division match – with extras the top-scorer courtesy of two leg byes.
There were 10 ducks in the Wirral innings, with No. 11 Connor Hodson, supposedly their worst batsman, the only member of the visitors’ side to score a run off the bat.
That Wirral managed three was something of an achievement after they were reduced to none for eight.
Ben Istead took six wickets for one run and Tom Gledhill four for none in an innings that lasted fewer than 10 overs.
Haslington won the match by 105 runs after making only 108 themselves before, as the Stoke Sentinel newspaper reported, “the real drama unfolded after the tea interval”.
Wirral’s official Twitter feed saw them issue pleas to several ex-England players, including former captain Michael Vaughan and popular television pundit David Lloyd for “a few hours coaching” under the hashtag of #weneedit.
Matt Garrett, who came in at number nine with the score at 0-7, told BBC Radio 5 Live, “It all happened in a bit of a blur really. I think I headed into the changing rooms to get my pads on when we were three down and got out to the middle just in time to take my guard when the seventh wicket fell.
“The reaction in the back of your mind is, ‘I think we can still do this’ but, two balls later when you’re following all your team mates back to the clubhouse, you think perhaps it’s not your day,” he said. (AFP)
