SALE were again oon their travels on Saturday playing in South Cheshire at Nantwich.

Sale captain Iain Harrop kept up his successful run of winning the toss and knowing that the pitch had some life, particularly at one end, elected to field.

The Nantwich batsmen got off to an excellent start.

J Cornford survived a lbw appeal early on to the amazement of even the home spectators and posted 45 before being adjudged out lbw.

Sale's self proclaimed star Gary 'Baa' Saunders bowled an excellent spell of 24 overs without a break and picked up a deserved three wickets for eighty five runs.

The Nantwich charge was brought to a standstill by the outstanding spell from Bobby Rehman who came on first change and picked up 3-37 in 15 overs.

It could have been even better but several difficult chances went to ground.

In a rain affected innings Sale restricted the home side to 168 for 7.

The delays left the Clarendon Road side only 38 overs to reach the target.SAle

A draw at this stage of the season would not be good enough to avoid relegation.

The Sale innings got off to a good start with Halkan and Saunders in control.

At 40 for 1 and even at 82 for 3 Sale looked to have the upper hand.

Saunders kept the score moving with shots from the Tiger Woods book of cricket before finally falling for 54.

After that only Paul Peglar looked comfortable until given lbw for Nantwich Ward's style of bowling suited the conditions and he ran through the tail, despite four warnings, to take 5 for 34.

The Sale innings petered out at 117 leaving captain Harrop disappointed at the result following the previous weeks good show.

Sale are away again this week at Alderley Edge and will be without key players noteably Saunders.

The final games will be vital in Sales quest to stay up.

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