Delph bounced back from their poor showing on the Saturday league match to record a very ruthless win in this 3rd Round Sykes Cup match, which had been delayed a week following the rain interruption on the previous Sunday. League rules state that if less than 10 overs are bowled on the original date for the tie then that match is declared void and a new one starts on the following Sunday that is designated as a reserve day. So when Broad Oak innings could not get any further than the 7th over, due to the rain the teams assembled again the following Sunday.
This time Delph decided to bat after winning the toss and although Xander Selby and Alex Peters were dismissed early on Mosun Hussain and Nathan Jones steadied the innings to give Delph a good base. Jones was caught and bowled by Broad Oak skipper Jack Hargreaves for a patient 43 off 79 balls (8 4’s) but this brought in Rehan Afridi to join Hussain. Afridi produced his best knock off the season so far with a fluent 68 off only 51 balls (7 4’s and 4 6's) and Hussain was dismissed for 59 with 3 4's and 4 6's. Louis Aspeling also contributed 37 to leave Delph handily placed for a final 10 over push. Adam Hayes hit 3 consecutive 6's before being caught in the deep going for his 4th and Luke Hargreaves, as he so often does, hit 3 big 6's in his 32 not out off 14 balls. Delph’s innings closed off the last ball to set Broad Oak an imposing target of 283 to progress to the semi final. Kieran Dyll was the main threat for Broad Oak with 3 for 30 off his allocated 10 overs.
The Broad Oak reply never really got going, after Umer Yaqoob dismissed both openers early, clean bowling both Dominic Finn and danger man Charlie Roebuck. Mohammad Shakir then dismissed Broad Oak’s middle order to effectively remove any threat Delph might have felt. When Harvey Booth, who scored a century on the previous Saturday, was bowled by Walter Kasim the innings soon folded with Kasim taking 3 wickets off 4 balls. Only Kieran Dill with 23 showed resistance but when he was run out by Nathan Jones the innings had subsided to 95 all out off only 22.2 overs.
