Rainhill fall to Wigan defeat
Liam Yate hits magnificent 46 in losing cause
Wigan 239-7 (Jack Maddocks 66, Ryan Ouwerkerk 59, David Pennington 3-67)
Rainhill 125 (Liam Yate 46, Joe Harvey 18, Harry Jackman 5-39)
Wigan won by 114 runs
Points: Wigan 25 pts, Rainhill 6pts.
Rainhill's second team fell to a disappointing defeat at Wigan, but it was not a game without positives for the visitors.
Wigan won the toss and opted to bat. Openers Daniel Yates and David Wood got off to a solid start and their determination to score quickly set the tone for the rest of the innings. However, with the score on 25, Owen Groom made the breakthrough and dismissed Wood, lbw, for 14. Further joy for Rainhill followed when David Pennington picked up his first wicket of the day, with Stephen Power holing out to Liam Yate. With the home side on 34-2, Rainhill sensed an opportunity.
Harry Jackman was the next man in and he was beginning to build a dangerous-looking partnership with opener Yates when he was run out by Biley Banerjee. Jackman had hit a quickfire 16 from 22 balls. Batting at number 5 for Wigan was Ryan Ouwerkerk, and he soon made his intentions clear hitting three huge sixes on his way to his half-century.
It looked as if Yates would reach that milestone first but, on 48, he was superbly caught by Banerjee off the bowling of Sam Williamson. Shortly afterwards Joe Harvey bowled Andy Bailey for 2 to leave the game firmly in the balance and Wigan on 105-5.
A partnership between Ouwerkerk and new batsman Jack Maddocks was to change that and put the home side in the ascendancy. The duo put on 105 runs for the sixth wicket and, although David Pennington struck twice more to remove them for 59 and 66 respectively, when Maddocks' wicket fell Wigan were on 223-7. Anurag Sodhani (18) and Matthew Shirley (5) were able to add a further 16 runs without loss.
Faced with a target of 239, Rainhill's top order batsmen got themselves in but were unable to build on promising starts to post the big score that was needed. Biley Banerjee (15), Owen Groom (13) and Luis Duffy (6) were not able to occupy the crease for long, and Rainhill quickly found themselves on 37-3. Mark Viggars and Liam Yate shared a valuable partnership of 41 for the fourth wicket, but when Harry Jackman struck to dismiss Viggars it precipitated a spectacular collapse. From 78-3 Rainhill slumped to 125 all out with Jackman impressing for the visitors, taking 5-39.
There were positives, however: Liam Yate's defiant 46 from 49 balls and Joe Harvey's patient resistance pointed to the team's potential. While the scorecard suggests a one-sided game, in truth there were times when the outcome looked anything other than certain, not least when Rainhill had reduced the hosts to 105-5.
The result leaves the 2nd team fourth in the league table. Their next match will be at home to Wavertree.
Umpires: Scott Churchman, John Veacock
Scorers: Lynn Yates, David Crossley Picture credit: Wigan CC