Amaan Ughradar’s brilliant 154 helped secure another 12-point win for White Coppice 2nd XI against New Longton 3rds.
The win moved Martin Cuerden’s fast-improving team off the bottom of Division Seven and was the least they deserved for Ughradar’s brilliance.
New Longton play at Tarlton’s second ground, which had a very short straight boundary and a lightning-fast outfield.
Cuerden elected to bat after winning the toss and was one of the two openers dismissed with 39 on the board.
That brought Amaan to the crease and he made the most of being dropped on 10 to launch an outstanding counter attack.
He dominated a 47-run for the third wicket with Janayed Ilyas (scoring 42 of them) including hitting 22 off one over before bringing up his second successive 50 off just 28 balls.
A few wickets then fell around him as Coppice slipped to 106-6 but cometh the hour, cometh Adam Mannan.
The two shared a seventh wicket partnership of 158, the highest in Coppice’s Play-Cricket history (passing the 123 set earlier in the season between Anis Haider and Nathan Shepard) and the highest in the whole league structure this season.
Amaan still did the majority of the scoring, bringing up his hundred with one of 13 sixes, in fact his 50,100 and 150 were all brought up with sixes.
With his team mates narrowly avoiding being hit by some of his sixes, attention on the sidelines quickly turned to the all-time Coppice batting record.
However, Amaan finally fell on a magnificent 154 off just 76 balls – the fifth Coppice hundred this season.
It was the highest the 3rd highest score on record and the highest since Kyle Dixon’s undefeated 172 against Withell Fold in 2015
There was still a few overs left for Mannan to complete a first 50 for the club, finishing with 59 not out off 72 balls.
He put on 30 for the 9th wicket with David Elstins, which included David’s first ever boundary.
White Coppcie’s innings finished on 295-8, bettering the 284 previous highest score for the 2s against the same opponents.
Facing a mammoth total, Mannan completed a good day all round for with a tight spell of 3-20 off eight overs.
He was ably supported by Anis Haider, who beat the edge umpteen times in his 1-34 (10).
New Longton fell from 63-3 to 74-7 before a quick-fire 46 partnership for the 8th wicket saw them close on 139 all out.
Chris Dale finished with two wickets and three catches, while Amaan topped his perfect day with a wicket.
The match was brought to an end by Cuerden’s 150th Coppice wicket, only the 7th player in Play-Cricket’s history to hit that milestone.