Rainhill crash to dismal defeat
Rainhill fall to an eight wicket reversal at the hands of Wallasey
Rainhill 66 (James Clarke 27, Sam Kershaw 17, Sumit Ruikar 8-26)
Wallasey 69-2 (Jamie Crawley 54, Jack Lowrie 1-7)
Wallasey won by 8 wickets
Points: Rainhill 1pt, Wallasey 20pts.
Rainhill fell to their first defeat of the season after a game they'll want to forget at home to Wallasey.
After being asked to bat by the visitors, Rainhill lost opener Tyler McGladdery early on when he was caught by Matty Hughes off the bowling of spinner - and Wallasey's professional - Sumit Duikar for 0. James Clarke and Sam Kershaw forged a useful partnership but were unable to press on and build a platform for the rest of the innings. Just as it looked as if Rainhill had weathered the storm, Kershaw was trapped lbw by Ruikar for 17.
The fall of Kershaw's wicket triggered a major collapse as Rainhill slumped from 34-1 to 66 all out. Clarke scored a patient 27 from 75 balls and Ben Edmundson made's 12 from 28 balls represented a positive contribution in the circumstances, but no-one else was able to offer any real resistance. Sumit Duikar took a hat-trick in the course of the afternoon: after dismissing the Rainhill captain, his next two balls sent Mike Rotheram and Jamie Harrison back to the pavilion without scoring. Worse was to follow as Duikar ripped through Rainhill's tail with ease, finishing with astonishing figures of 8 for 26.
While it was hardly a vintage batting performance from Rainhill it would be remiss not to recognise Duikar's achievement. Rainhill fared little better with the ball. Wallasey opener Jamie Crawley dominated the strike and played ruthlessly en route to an impressive personal innings of 54 from 53 balls, including six 4s and two 6s. With the score on 59, requiring only eight runs for victory, Crawley and fellow opener Daniel Beaver succumbed to Liam O'Toole and Jack Lowrie respectively, but the two late wickets proved academic as Chris Davies and Neil Cross guided Wallasey over the finish line. Umpires: Ian Laurence, Chris Spencer
Scorers: Craig Kell, Andrew Finney
Match ball sponsor: Jack's Best One