Sale thwarted despite Halkon's ton
2:18pm Monday 12th May 2008
Sale 273-2
Bredbury St Marks 182-8DESPITE running up a huge total of 273-2 against Bredbury on Saturday, Sale could not force a win and had to settle for a 16 points draw.
Sale's innings was marked by a magnificent unbeaten knock of 126 by 18-year-old Dan Halkon.
Showing remarkable maturity and concentration, as well as an impressive range of strokeplay, he batted throughout the 50 overs and three hours of the Sale innings, hitting 20 boundaries from 142 balls.
He and J-P Lee started with a fine century stand, their second of the season, scored from just 24 overs.
Halkon had lucky breaks when catches were put down on eight and 47 but he made the opposition pay dearly for their lapses.
Lee was bowled for 53 (80 balls) with the score on 103 but the next partnership with Ian Dixon was even more fruitful.
Dixon is a newcomer to the club and has made a tentative start but on Saturday he showed that he is a classy left-hander who should be a real asset to Sale.
He and Halkon made a careful start to their stand but they soon got into their stride with some very polished and forceful batting.
In their last 10 overs at the wicket they added 88 runs and when Dixon was bowled for a run-a-ball 71 in the 49th over they had put on 160 for the second wicket in just 84 minutes.
At the 50 overs declaration Halkon had reached 126 and became the second batsman this season to hold his bat throughout the Sale innings.
On a good batting track it was always going to be difficult to bowl out the opposition, particularly following the late withdrawal of Jamie Broadbent to a sad family bereavement, but skipper Mike Halkon made a promising start when he took two early wickets.
Opener Carr looked in ominous form but he fell one short of his half-century to a catch by wicketkeeper King off Lee.
Sale fielded particularly well to keep the batmen under pressure but a stand of 50 for the fourth wicket kept the Bredbury total at par with Sale past the 30th over.
John Taylor then grabbed two wickets in an over to give Sale hope and Rick Halkon later knocked back Wood's stumps to leave the home side on 140-6 with 11 overs left.
The chase was given up at this point and Bredbury lost just two more wickets before seeing out the innings at 182-8.
Sale's second XI made it four wins out of four in their game against second-placed Bredbury at Sale to set the pace in their division, Jamal Benzafar's 89 being the highlight.