Kirk held to draw
NEW BRIGHTON ......... 241/9 DECLARED ORMSKIRK .......................................... 123/7 MATCH DRAWN.
PLAY got underway late because of rain. Matt Glayzer won the toss for Ormskirk and with a damp wicket and a slow outfield he decided to put New Brighton in to bat.
Early in the game it became apparent that it was a good toss to win to ask the New Brighton batsmen to test the conditions that definitely favoured the bowlers.
All went accordingly to plan and before long New Brighton found themselves losing their first five wickets with just 73 runs on the board.
The main architect of the early success was Scott Lees who took two early wickets, dismissing Kahurram Hussain (1) and David While (0).
The wicket of Hussain was won with the assistance of a catch by George Lavelle and he neatly caught While himself off his own bowling.
The third wicket fell as Mark Rowland (10) was bowled by Josh Bohannon.
Andrew Clarke (40) then fell to Nicky Caunce, quickly followed by John While (16) who was Caunce’s second victim.
With the score on 73 –5 things were looking good for Ormskirk but unfortunately things started to go downhill as the bowling became erratic, and the fielding fell into disarray.
The new partnership of Upal Fernando and Louis C Botes took control, showing little respect for bowlers and fielders alike.
They peppered the boundary with consummate ease and it wasn’t long before both batsmen reached their half century marks and beyond.
Fernando (70) gained his final score off 95 balls hitting seven 4s and one 6 and Botes (69) scored ten 4’s and two 6’s off 65 balls.
It was impressive scoring but was assisted greatly by poor bowling and indifferent fielding.
The stand realised 129 runs and New Brighton had been really let off the hook.
They batted on to reach 241-9 when they declared leaving Ormskirk a formidable task to come out of the game with winning points.
The reply opened with Andy Baybutt and Michael Jones at the crease but, unfortunately, the usual trusty opening partnership did not produce the goods to which the home supporters had become accustomed.
With the score on 19 Baybutt (9) fell to a catch behind the wicket and Jones (9) quickly followed two runs later being caught off the bowling of Andrew Evans.
Things got steadily worse when the new partnership of Ian Robinson and Josh Bohannon failed to offer any real glimmer of hope.
Robinson (0) very quickly found himself back in the dressing room after being caught behind the wicket off the bowling of Botes, and Bohannon (12) followed suit in the same fashion falling to a catch behind off the same bowler.
The score stood at 37-4, with all hopes of victory now dependent on Matt Glayzer and George Lavelle.
They had the unenviable task of having to score quickly while under the pressure of standing up to an unrelenting pace attack and surrounded by close fielders.
More importantly, however, they had to stay there as thoughts turned towards earning a draw rather than chasing victory.
Lavelle (0)looked uncomfortable from the outset and faced just three balls before he fell to yet another catch behind the wicket.
The wicket keeper must have thought it was his birthday as the Ormskirk batsman offered him his 4th gift catch.
The score was now 43-5 and it was down to Glayzer and his new partner Scott Lees to salvage some pride rather than chase down victory.
Lees (22), who had been the pick of the Ormskirk bowlers in New Brighton’s innings, attacked the bowling with a flurry of boundaries but was tempted into a big hit too many by Andrew Evans only to find the ball nestling into the eager hands of Fernando.
With the score on 78-6 Glayzer was joined by teenager Tom Hartley with the objective of both players simply defending their wickets and staying put.
All thoughts of that went by the wayside when Glayzer (24) had his stumps uprooted to take the score to a miserable 88-7.
With Tom Hartley joined by Nicky Caunce, Ormskirk faced almost certain defeat unless, against all the odds, they could defend their wickets when other recognized batsmen had failed to do so.
The home supporters were looking for a hero and in young Hartley they found one.
He was not at all troubled by the hostile bowling and field placings, playing some fine attacking strokes mixed with resolute defensive play.
He was ably supported by Caunce, who abandoned his characteristic big hitting style to play a very sensible innings, taking safe singles to allow Hartley to face the bowling.
There were still plenty of overs left for New Brighton to take the final three wickets but Hartley and Caunce were totally defiant as black storm clouds gathered over Brook Lane and rain began to fall.
As the light worsened and the rain got heavier the Umpires took the players off the field to end play, with Hartley (29*) top scoring and Caunce (12*) having foiled the best that New Brighton could throw at them.
By any standards it was a very poor performance by Ormskirk with only Lees, who took four wickets, Caunce, with a three wicket take and a resolute defensive effort with the bat, along with Tom Hartley who came out of the game with credit.
Of the three, the nomination of ‘Man of the Match’ for the home side goes to Tom Hartley.
He showed maturity beyond his years in very difficult circumstances and displayed the application that more experienced players lacked.
The result saw Ormskirk drop a place down the table to take up fourth position 22 points behind leaders Northern and 11 points behind third place Bootle who are next week’s visitors to Brook Lane.