Orrell’s Young Guns Lead the Way
It was a complete washout for all three of Orrell Saturday teams, as heavy rain in the North-West of England put paid to all but a small number of matches.
Thankfully, both Sunday teams were able to play their matches as planned. Matthew Hayes’ 4th team (containing 10 juniors) welcomed Lytham CC to Winstanley Road. Having won the toss, the visitors elected to bat first. Despite two wickets from under 15’s bowler, James Such, the visitors seemed well placed as they brought the half century up for the loss of only two wickets. The Orrell effort was not helped by some poor ground fielding which cost them two clear run out opportunities. The young Orrell bowling attack was also struggling to place the ball consistently in good areas and the visiting batters were able to wait for the bad ball to put away. Under 14 bowler James Edgington did then take the key wicket of opening batter Mark Hodgkinson with Ben Connor taking an excellent catch at mid-on. The introduction of the Hayes brothers (Matthew and Dominic) into the attack then brought more control to proceedings and allowed the home side to impose more scoreboard pressure onto the visiting batting line-up. This undoubtedly contributed to the key run out of the visiting captain Joe Ashton to make the score 83-5. The spin duo of the home captain and Alfie Clarke then ran through the remainder of the visiting batting line-up as they were bowled out for 106 in 31.5 overs. Clarke led the way with figures of 3-5, Dominic Hayes 1-8, Such 2-16 and Edgington 1-31. The home captain finished with figures of 2-9 to cap a fine performance in the field which saw him also take three catches and effect a run out.
It is often said that chasing a low total can be very tricky and this proved to be the case for the young Orrell top order. Whilst the scoreboard was ticking over, this was mainly through fielding extras but the home side knew that they had plenty of overs in order to achieve the target set. Alix Allcock displayed improved shot selection batting at number four- pushing back the good balls and putting away the bad balls for four. However, a bizarre runout when he failed to pay attention at the non-striker’s end to a ball that gone for a bye behind the wicketkeeper put paid to his promising innings to make the score 39-3. It was then left to Dominic Hayes and Clarke to take the hosts towards the victory target. They did this through sound shot selection and effective running between the wickets. When Hayes was out for 20 with the score on 92-5, Clarke capped a fine all-round performance to finish on 35 not out as Orrell won by five wickets with over 20 overs of the day’s play left to go.
Meanwhile, Mark Crumpton’s (under the temporary charge of George Mushahwar) 4th team made the trip over to Crosby to play South Liverpool CC at their base at Northern CC. Having been asked to bat by the hosts, the Orrell top three got them off to a slow but steady start with Mushahwar top scoring with 46, his fellow opener Geoff Burrows making 34 and under 14 Logan Pallett scoring 22. Apart from Ian Davies (25) the rest of the Orrell batting line up did not make a significant contribution meaning that the innings did not accelerate in the way that it should have done and they had to battle on beyond 45 overs to achieve a defendable total. The Orrell innings eventually finishing on 166 all out in 51 overs. In reply, the hosts paced their chase well as the mainly young Orrell pace attack struggled to exert control not helped by dropped catches once again. The introduction of under 15 off spinner Arthur Moore, saw him finish with figures of 3-11 from 7 overs but his introduction was a little too late as the hosts won by 3 wickets with a few balls to spare.
1 Comment
Well done all. Great to see the young lads getting it done.