Huge weekend for Mansfield Hosiery Mills in fight for survival

After a six-wicket defeat by leaders Cavaliers & Carrington, and with two massive games looming this weekend, Mansfield Hosiery Mills captain Adam Dobb said they now had a 10 game season to save themselves.
Daniel Harris - took 2-30 against Cavaliers on Saturday.Daniel Harris - took 2-30 against Cavaliers on Saturday.
Daniel Harris - took 2-30 against Cavaliers on Saturday.

The winless Millers are rooted to the bottom of the Nottinghamshire Premier League as the season reaches the halfway point this weekend when they face Cavaliers & Carrington again, at home on Saturday, before a big local derby at Cuckney on Sunday.

“It's a big weekend for us but one we're actually quite looking forward to,” said Dobb. “It's nice to play Cavs straight away again. They are top of the table and a great side but you just never know.

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“With them fresh in our minds hopefully we can capitalise and work out a new plan.

“Then Cuckney is always a tough game but one we always get excited for. Hopefully we can pull out a couple of results and an upset to kickstart our season.

“We are now looking at it as a 10 games season and need as many wins as we can to keep us up. It's like starting again at the halfway stage and we will work really hard for a couple of wins that could do the job for us.”

At Cavaliers on Saturday, battling Hosiery Mills were bowled out for 132 in 48.3 overs, Raheem Ahmed taking 4-23.

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Having been 30-5, mid-order batsman Matt Dean then heroically dug in with 49 to earn Hosiery Mills a much more respectable total. Matt Wright (19) and Dobb (15 not out) lent him much needed support from the tail.

Cavaliers did not make the best of starts and were 53-4 before Nayyar Abbas (45 not out) and Adam Tillcock (35 not out) steered them home in 29.2 overs. Daniel Harris claimed 2-30.

“The scorecard probably doesn't reflect how we played,” said Dobb.

“We were missing our pro from Notts – he was a big loss – I have started to carry an injury and another of our players picked up an injury while batting.

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“But we got to 132 on a difficult pitch. We chose to bat and it did a bit early on and we lost early wickets. But we battled really well to almost the full 50 overs.

“On another day that would have got up to 180-190 which keeps you in the game. But the nice thing was earlier in the season we potentially would have folded to less than 100 all out in that situation.

“We then started really well with the ball, the lads hit the right areas. But the pitch got a bit flatter and they are a good side and ended up cruising it, which showed their depth."