Saturday 12th June 2021 will be a date, or an innings, that lives long in the memory of those present.
The 1st XI were at home against Darcy Lever CC, who batted first on a glorious Summer’s day to post a first innings total of 234 for 8. What happened in the next few hours was bizarre, memorable, unbelievable etc…
Atherton had slumped to 95-7 and then 120-8 in pursuit of the visitor’s total, which suddenly looked a million miles away. However, club professional Zain Abbas had watched all eight of his batting partners depart while he remained solid and resolute.
In came Ellis Mort to provide solid support to Zain while they set about repairing the damage and then slowly the mood started to change as the partnership grew. Runs required went from 100, to 80, to 60 with Zain playing shots all around the wicket and Mort taking the singles to keep Zain on strike.
The previous highest individual score by an Atherton CC player was 166 by our late president, Tom Boardman but Zain had this in his sight and eventually finished on 174 not out in what proved to be a 10th wicket partnership of 118, probably another record.
An astonishing achievement but one that had cemented Zain in the history books of our club.
Another view of the day has been published by cricket lover Mike Latham: Read it here
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