Cumbria County Cricket Club have progressed to the National Counties One Day Trophy semi-finals courtesy of a 14-run victory over Cheshire.

The quarter-final match took place at Keswick Cricket Club on Sunday.

Freddy Fallows opened the batting for Cumbria in challenging conditions following his successful appearance in the National Counties Cricket Association XI’s victory over MCC but he was caught out from Chris Sanders’ second delivery at mid-wicket.

Ben Walkden then joined Sam Dutton and the pair managed to collate 40 runs before a snorter from Joe Cooke took out Walkden’s off stump.

Into the fray came Captain Michael Slack who struck a partnership of 81 with Cumbrian’s pro and ex-captain Gary Pratt before Slack was bowled out LBW trying to sweep the left-arm spinner Steven Green.

Pratt continued to impress and carried his bat on 69 off 108, keeping his head as his batting partners fell gradually one-by-one.

The Mail:

At the end of the innings, Cumbria had racked up 208/8 off the 50 overs, which reflected the stodgy batting conditions.

Predictably, Cheshire found it equally difficult to score runs and were 9/0 off 3.4 overs when rain stopped play for the first time.

Ed Moulton made the breakthrough immediately after the restart by bowling Ben Kohler-Cadmore. And just nine balls later, Slack trapped Sam Perry LBW.

Slack then struck again in the 10th over by getting Henry Dobson caught by keeper Drew Postlethwaite and once more two overs later thanks to a skied catch put up by Cook for Matthew Sempill at mid-on.

Cheshire’s Captain, Harry Dearden scored 27 when Fallows trapped him LBW in the 19th over and when rain stopped play again at the start of the 32nd over, Cheshire were on 113/5.

It looked as if the 82-run partnership between Alex Money and Luke Young was turning the match for the visitors, but Moulton managed to bowl Money for 61 off 81 balls.

Two overs later, Moulton got Nick Anderson LBW and Fallows followed up by bowling Sanders in the next.

With three overs left to play, Cheshire needed 15 runs to win the match, but Matthew Siddall delivered a magnificent dot ball that caught Green LBW.

The win gives Cumbria an away semi-final match against Suffolk on July 16 at 11am. Venue TBC.

Meanwhile Cumbria get their campaign underway in the Durrant Cricket National County Championship against Bedfordshire at Furness Cricket Club between July 9 – July 13.