SALE kept up the pressure on the top two teams in Cheshire County League Division One thanks to a six-wicket win at Oxton.

In an early start, Oxton won the toss and elected to bat in excellent conditions and raced to 50 inside 10 overs due to some wayward bowling from the Sale openers.

This prompted captain Chris Canning to introduce the spin of Ian Dixon and Brooke Guest from the 11th over to restrict the hosts.

The change paid off with Guest claiming the wicket of the dangerous Gibson, caught at backward point by Matt Spells with the score on 55. 

Dixon and Guest slowed down the run rate with some excellent bowling  during the middle overs, the Oxton batsmen content with singles.

With the score on 98, Dixon bowled Ben Roberts for 21 and Guest struck again in the next over removing Jamie Crawley. This brought overseas star Guyan Fernando to the crease, who looked to give the innings a kick-start hitting a couple of early boundaries.

All-rounder Dixon finished with figures of 1-33 from 15 overs.

Tyrone Lawrence was re-introduced for a second spell and claimed the prized wicket of Fernando, clean bowling the Sri Lankan around his legs.

Opener Marc De Brabander was proving more difficult to remove and hit a classy 75 off 131 balls before he was finally dismissed by Lawrence, lbw from around the wicket.  

Some excellent fielding by the visitors led to confusion in the middle with Sale claiming two run-outs.

Richard Adams was brought into the attack and took the final two wickets, finishing with figures of 2-23, as Oxton declared with the score on 182-9 due to only having 10 players present – a broken down car led to Shaaiq Choudhry not playing.  

The Sale reply got off to a bad start, losing the in-form Guest, clean bowled by Roberts for five.

Lawrence then joined Spells in the middle and moved the score on to 56 with the latter the aggressor, playing beautifully through the off side.

An unusually slow innings by Lawrence ended when he was caught behind for just eight off the bowling of James Fraser. Fernando then struck to remove Dan Halkon for one to leave Sale struggling at 57-3.

Dixon joined Spells at the wicket and played carefully in the early stages.

Spells continued his free-flowing innings, reaching a well-made 50 with a clip off his legs off the bowling of Fraser. However, Oxton brought Calum Andrews into the attack and he struck with his third ball to remove Spells thanks to an excellent catch by wicketkeeper De Brabander.

With Sale still needing 100 to win, Canning was the next batsman in and got off to a fast start, hitting his first ball through point.

Targeting the short leg-side boundary, Canning looked in excellent touch as he launched two sixes over mid-wicket.

This prompted Oxton to bring opener Ben Andrews back into the attack, looking for the scalp of the Sale captain.

The extra pace on the ball was to Canning’s liking and inside 10 overs after drinks he had taken the game away from the hosts, bringing up a classy 50 with another six over square-leg.

Sale finished the game off in the 38th over with Dixon hitting the winning runs, finishing on 26 not out.

In a partnership of 103, Canning ended on 73 off just 43 balls as Sale ended on 186-4.

The 25-point win keeps Sale in fourth place, however, with the top two teams losing, the points gap has shortened.

Sale play second-placed Grappenhall in the next game as the season heads towards an exciting finish.

In the reverse fixture, Sale second XI made it a 50-point day for the club, beating Oxton by eight wickets.

Winning the toss and electing to bowl, Sale restricted the visitors to 186-5 from their 50 overs.

Tight bowling from opener Gareth Watterson put Sale on the front foot and he was well supported by Abas Rizvi and Siyan Sirj. Sirj finished with figures of 3-38.  

Captain James Hall fell early in the reply but that brought Siraj to the middle to join Rory Woodward.

An excellent century stand finally came to an end when Woodward was caught falling short of what would have been a good half-century.

However, Siraj continued to play some expansive shots and was supported by the incoming Rizvi.

The pair knocked the total off inside 36 overs with Siraj finishing 100no.

Earlier in the week Sale Silverbacks were on top in their quarter-final tie away at Bollington.

With the hosts on 94-5 in the 18th over, the rain intervened and the tie will need to start again this week. 

This Saturday, the first XI host Grappenhall and the second XI play the reverse fixture.

The third X1 travel to Toft while the fourth team play Heaton Mersey at home.