Ormskirk denied Moor Park victory by solitary wicket
NORTHERN and Ormskirk both fell just short of victory at Moor Park – the visitors by one wicket, the hosts by 13 runs. Gary Knight’s unbeaten 57 led his side to 217, while Danny Wilson claimed 5/60; Chris Laker’s 67 and Zahir Shehzad’s 6/68 were the top performers in the second half.
Leigh extended their winning run to three on the bounce, and their unbeaten streak to six, thanks to a suffocating bowling display followed by a perfectly timed chase at Southport & Birkdale.
The individual star of a dominant team display was Sam Dorsey, whose 95 featured eight fours and three sixes and never let the home attack settle, after skipper Chris Cunningham’s declaration left them 40 overs in which to get 208.
The last hour dawned with 133 required from 120 balls – Dorsey and Mattie McKiernan struck an early boundary in four of the next six overs, then picked off easy singles in the vast outfield.
McKiernan fell to Cunningham for 56, but by then left-armer Bobby Wincer had been hit out of the attack and the rate was below a run a ball.
Crucially, Dorsey kept the runs flowing even after losing his partner – two fours over mid-wicket put seamer Romario Brathwaite on the sidelines, while the opener’s earlier treatment of Basil Sultan left Cunningham with nowhere to turn bar the spin of himself and Chris Firth.
Consecutive huge sixes off the skipper left Leigh nine short of victory and Dorsey five shy of his first Comp century – next over, a scampered three put him on strike with six needed, but his attempt to settle it in one blow ended in the hands of Sultan at mid-on.
No matter, though – the job was all but done, and completed off the first ball of the last over with a tickle behind square by Alex Mason.
“The team that plays the more positive cricket, more often than not, is going to win more games,” said the winning captain Finn Hulbert, deputising for Karl Brown.
“As soon as we got within 40 or 50, we were fairly comfortable that we could score at eight, nine, 10 an over if needed. Sam’s gutted not to get his hundred – but anyone batting that well, whether it’s for 95 or 100 doesn’t really make any difference. It was a proper performance from him.”
Some at Trafalgar Road – and Brown later via social media – expressed frustration with Cunningham’s tactics having chosen to bat first.
But in truth the home skipper had been painted into a corner by the opening exchanges, which saw Hulbert remove JJ Fielding and Johnny Whitehead, and Patrick Allan induce a season’s worth of play-and-misses at the other end.
Jack Stanley and Sultan rebuilt with a pleasant partnership of 113 in 40.5 overs. But tea came at 172/7, which was never going to be enough.
S&B batted on until Firth was ninth out, in the 67th over – a draw seemed the likeliest result, but Dorsey had other ideas.
Hulbert added: “We knew when we turned up and it was a flat deck that they were going to have the chance to pile on the runs.
“They batted for a long, long time, but our bowlers gave us the best chance of restricting them. And it helps when you’ve got players like Dors and Mattie who can come in and play really aggressive, positive cricket – and that’s what the Comp is all about.”
Wallasey’s opening pair of Jamie Crawley and Danny Beaver notched their fourth century stand of the season as the Wirral side stretched their Premier Division lead with a 135-run win at Orrell Red Triangle.
Crawley hit 93 and Beaver 54 in their side’s 244/5; for the first time this season, Sumit Ruikar had to settle for a mere four wickets, as his fellow leftarmer Andy Beaver took the last three to wrap up the win.
Birkenhead Park claimed Wirral bragging rights with a run-heavy fourwicket win at New Brighton. The hosts’ Dan Cooke made his maiden first XI century with 132 out of his side’s 233/6, but Mark Rowland’s 101, backed up by
Tom Foster’s unbeaten 59, earned the visitors the spoils.
Wigan’s Charles Taylor and Aaron Redmond also joined the century club with unbeaten knocks of 114 and 103 respectively, as they piled on 163 out of a mammoth total of 301/2 at Formby. But with rain around, the hosts closed on 175/6 thanks to Sam Oldham’s 50.
Tyler McGladdery’s unbeaten 96 led Rainhill to their first win of the season, by nine wickets at Newton-le-Willows. Earlier, Imliwati Lemtur’s 5/31 had dismissed the hosts for 138 despite Ben Walkden’s 58.