Losing draw is not the result Roses wanted at Welbeck, but points could be vital

Playing on a wicket that was used for a Notts county one day game, runs were expected, and when Welbeck won the toss they elected to bat first.

The opening stages provided some tight bowling from Graham Clay and Ben Smith, and the Welbeck openers found it hard to get early runs.

This pressure led to a daft attempted run, with the ball falling to the strong arm of Smith who collected and threw to comfortably split up the opening partnership with the run out.

After this wickets were hard to come by and some sensible batting from the Welbeck batsmen kept the scoreboard ticking over.

Following the drinks break three quick wickets fell between Tom Lane and Dan Clay slowed down the scoring for a short while, but more sensible batting and some good hitting towards the end of the innings eventually gave Welbeck a total score of 196-6.

Throughout the innings the Roses fielders threw themselves about and kept the score down to a total that was achievable.

The Roses openers were hoping to make a good start of the run chase and 30 was on the board before Welbeck made the first breakthrough.

This led to steady flow of wickets every time Roses looked like a partnership was starting to begin.

Opener Lane kept his cool through the innings and was holdingit together even thought the score looked like it was getting away.

A quick fire 28 off 21 balls from Ben Smith put some pressure back onto the bowlers and gave Roses a glimmer of hope.

But after Lane and Smith were both dismissed on 131 chasing the game the aim was the losing draw.

A strong rear guard effort from the lower order saw Roses finish their 46 over on a total 143-9.

Roses will look to bounce back next weekend and continue their promotion push when they host lowly Glapwell II at Roses.