WITH the benefit of hindsight, Ticknall captain Scott Chilman conceded that his side may have been more positive after finishing eight runs short of Denby's 194-8 with plenty of wickets in hand.
They had been concerned that, with two juniors in the side, they might have exposed a long tail to Denby's bowlers on a difficult batting wicket if they had lost wickets earlier.
"It's a tricky one. We knew we didn't have Tommy Taylor or Zain Abbas so we didn't have the batting depth we'd normally have and that made us a little more cautious," said Chilman.
"Perhaps we could have manoeuvred the spinners a bit more or taken on Peter Burgoyne a bit sooner.
"We tried to and failed but perhaps there was a chance to have got him out of the attack fairly early.
"In hindsight it would have been great to have gone a bit sooner but it was a confidence issue, with three guys missing who would have been part of the top order.
"We had two young guys coming in at 10 and 11 and wanted to protect them but, yes, maybe it's a missed opportunity."
The pitch, dry in the absence of much rain ahead of the game, offered all the spinners plenty of help, something both sides exploited.
"It's nice, as a spinner myself, to get pitches like that to bowl on but, from a team point of view, the guys want pitches that are easier than that to bat on," said Chilman.
"Denby bowled well. They had an extra spinner which, on that pitch, suited them more. They'd seen how myself and Eddie bowled, so they knew Peter opening the bowling for them would be tricky for us."
Denby captain Joe Greenhalgh had expected Ticknall to go for the runs sooner than they did – but he also understood their caution.
"I was surprised but it definitely wasn't easy batting, as we had found first up. It was turning a bit but they probably just left it a bit late in the end," said Greenhalgh.
"It is tricky and maybe if two or three of their recognised batsmen had thrown their wicket away against the spinners, they might have regretted it.
"I'm pretty happy with our performance, although two or three of us threw our wickets away playing bad shots.
"I feel like we're playing a bit better cricket. There are still a few basic things we need to put right but we'll keep working and try to improve."
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