T20 adventure ends at Ormskirk
Rainhill fall to 57-run defeat
Ormskirk 145-4 (Ian Robinson 39, Gary Knight 31; Imliwati Lemtur 1-12) Rainhill 88-8 (Tyler McGladdery 46, David Atkinson 10; Zahir Shehzad 5-19)
Ormskirk beat Rainhill by 57 runs
Rainhill's run in the ECB Club T20 cup came to an end at the quarter-final stage as they fell to defeat at Ormskirk.
Having beaten Caldy and Birkenhead Park in previous rounds, Rainhill were hopeful of progressing to the LDCC are finals day and had good cause for optimism. Recent T20 performances in this competition and in the Echo Cup, combined with the form of Tyler McGladdery and Sam Kershaw, provided reasons to be positive.
The start of the match was delayed due to heavy rain and the match was reduced to 14 overs per side. The game got underway almost an hour late in the gathering gloom, with the hosts asked to bat by Rainhill. Ormskirk opener Zahir Shehzad showed positive intentions as he raced to 18 from five balls before attempting another big shot off Dan Kelly, only to find Imliwati Lemtur. Fellow opener Ian Robinson was then joined by captain Gary Knight and the new pairing played some adventurous shots as they added 63 for the second wicket.
Their partnership was broken when Liam O'Toole was released into the attack and removed Knight's middle stump in his first over. Shortly afterwards Lemtur trapped Robinson lbw for 39 and Rainhill sensed an opportunity. Unfortunately for the visitors, while Sam Kershaw took another wicket - that of John Armstrong, for 3 - Ormskirk's Sam Marsh (18 from 12 balls) and Alex Rankin (26 from 11) took their team's score to 145 for 4 from their allotted overs. Rainhill had been frustrated by finding edges only for the ball to race away to the boundary and the target was a tall order, but it was one Rainhill felt they could reach if they got out of the starting blocks quickly.
Rainhill's innings began well with David Atkinson and Tyler McGladdery scoring at the required rate and playing some powerful shots of their own as the ball sailed away to the boundary (or left the ground). After Atkinson was stumped by Gary Knight off the bowling of Zahir Shehzad, McGladdery took centre stage and entertained spectators with his familiar brand of blitzkrieg cricket. Wickets fell around him - Kershaw exited for 2 while captain Ben Edmundson was out for 4 - but as long as McGladdery was at the crease the onslaught continued.
McGladdery reached 46 from just 18 deliveries before attempting a big hit over deep mid-wicket that found Sam Hepke. Ormskirk celebrated the wicket as if it had sealed victory; in fairness, it probably had. Rainhill's middle and lower order were unable to produce the required runs and the game fizzled out as a contest. Rainhill's innings closed on a disappointing 88 for 8, with Shehzad collecting five wickets (5-19) and wicketkeeper Knight responsible for four dismissals.
Photographs of the game can be found here. (Apologies for the quality: low light levels required using a higher ISO, which creates "noise")
Umpires: Ian Lawrence, Chris Dunn
Scorers: Matthew Leigh, Andrew Finney