Efficiency behind ORT’s first victory
ORRELL Red Triangle earned their first Premier Division victory of 2022 with a professional four-wicket win over Newtonle-Willows.
What it lacked in fireworks, it made up for in efficiency – the three bowlers used shared all 10 visiting wickets, before the batters overcame an early wobble to ease home with room to spare.
Central to the action was home skipper Sam Heeley. As he put it, “everything just came together” – in this case a tireless spell of 17 overs, broken only by a change of ends, which yielded 3/42, followed by an unbeaten 39 to see his side home.
“We’d showed glimpses in our earlier games,” he added. “We got 260 against Formby, and we were unlucky not to get a win against New Brighton.
“So there had been signs that we could put it together.
“But the win gives us that bit of a boost in confidence – we’ve targeted the next two games as winnable ones as well.”
Lancashire Academy teen Dom Hayes earned the crucial wicket of Ben Walkden before regulations forced him to yield his end; he later returned to help nip out the tail and finished with 3/28.
Sri Lankan left-arm spinner Dileepa Jayalath claimed his best return so far, 4/42, just reward for his willingness to toss the ball up in the hope of getting some turn.
Both Ian Lyon and Subhaan Mahmood took him on and found the boundary, only for the next ball to be pinged in shorter and end up in the hands of the slips.
Nathan Hughes applied himself well but walked into a Heeley yorker on 45, the third of five wickets to go down for 32 runs.
Captain Chris Chambers did his best to marshall the tail but ran out of partners with his side on 116.
Particularly pleasing for Heeley was that not one chance went to ground throughout the whole innings, the closest being when Tom Jones appeared to fumble an edge off Afaq Ali Sartaj off Hayes, only to pick the ball out from between his knees.
He said: “It makes a huge difference, taking our chances. It’s something we work hard on every week, and it’s great when it comes to fruition on a Saturday.”
On a turning pitch, and with Sartaj and Jack Morley in their side, all was not lost for Newton.
If anything, seamer Zac Donohue’s opening burst, in which he drew edges from Andy Baybutt, Richard Everett and Matty Hayes, was a bonus.
But Heeley and his middle order had an answer to just about everything the spinners could throw at them. Morley dismissed Jayalath and Chris Riley to take his season’s tally to 12, but Heeley struck the winning four off Sartaj to round off a satisfying afternoon’s work.
Wallasey’s 100% Premier Division record came to a confusing end as Wigan, needing two to win off the last ball with eight wickets down, won by one wicket.
The unusual finish shouldn’t overshadow the previous few hours, which saw Jamie Crawley hit his second century of the season for Wallasey, finishing on a Comp best of 137*.
Thanks to Aaron Redmond’s 64, Wigan reached 172/3 in pursuit of 228 but Sumit Ruikar took his fifth five-for in as many games this summer to set up the scenes at the end.
Northern’s Danny Wilson earned a maiden five-for to wrap up a high-scoring win at Formby.
The visitors posted 261/5 thanks to Chris Laker’s 81 and Jac Kennedy’s 54.
Ormskirk’s Harvey Rankin and John Armstrong both hit half-centuries in their total of 216/5 at Birkenhead Park; but thanks to 50s from Tom Foster and Steve Hird, the hosts were able to hang on at 188/8.
Centuries from Tyler McGladdery and Mattie McKiernan cancelled each other out as Rainhill drew with Leigh. McGladdery’s 116 helped the hosts to 224, before McKiernan’s 111 gave Leigh a sniff of victory, eventually closing on 206/8 after Imliwati Lemtur’s 5/82.