Ashington CC's vice-captain says side needs to stop 'messing up' when in a good position

The visitors got 265-8 from their allotted 45 overs after a quickfire half century from opener Alasdair Appleby, with the home side all out from the first ball of the last over for 249.

Harmison said afterwards: “They got too many runs in the end – probably 30-40.

“Alasdair Appleby is a good player, especially in the powerplay where you have got fielders in. He’s got no fear and hits the ball hard over the top.

“We were chatting when they were six wickets down and saying if we could keep them down to 220 then we thought that would have been 30 under par – 265 was chaseable but we’ve lost by 16 runs and this is the story of our season so far. We get into good positions and then mess it up.”

He continued: “Our innings got off to a slow start and Felling bowled alright, then, when Avishka Perera and I were at the wicket, we were up with the rate of wanting just over a run a ball and were breezing it again. Once Avishka was out, we still had enough batting but we lost Sean McCafferty first ball and then, once it’s above the rate, you need lads who can come in and hit fours and sixes and we ran out of them.

“It’s a bad loss to Felling. We have got some hard games coming up and if we are not going to pull our fingers out then soon we are going to be down near the wrong end of the table.”

Professional Avishka Perera ended only four runs short of a first century for the club and Harmison said: “Avishka is the type of player who can take the game away from you, but I think if he had his time again, he’d regret targeting the near side.”

On Saturday (May 24), Ashington are away to Burnopfield and Harmison said: “It’s another tough game. It could be one which we lose, or alternatively it could turn our season on its head – and hopefully it’s the latter.”