Sunday teams shine after Saturday rrustration

Orrell’s first-team looked to bounce back from their first defeat of the season when they made the short journey away to St Helens Town. Unfortunately, heavy rain saw a delayed start with two hours of the day’s play lost. Losing the toss and being asked to bat first, Orrell recovered from the early loss of opener Matthew Hayes as Richard Everett joined Sam Heeley at the crease. Everett had immediately given the impression of a man in form with an expansive drive for four from only his third ball faced. With the score on 51, Everett was joined at the crease by Mark Waddington. Waddington took his time at first as he looked to overcome a run of recent poor form and become familiar with the batting conditions. With two hours of the game lost to the weather, Orrell skipper Andy Baybutt would need to make an informed decision about what would be a good score on which to declare the Orrell innings and also leave enough time in the days play to attempt to bowl out the opposition as well as post a total that the hosts would be interested in trying to chase down.

Everett and Waddington helped in this regard as they upped the scoring rate significantly with 58 runs coming from five overs- Waddington in particular unleashing some large sixes whilst Everett also got in on the act with a straight six over long on. Baybutt called time on the innings at this point with the score on 160-2 from 35 overs. Everett finished unbeaten on 66 from 76 balls whilst Waddington finished on an unbeaten 70 from 82 balls.

It was calculated that there were approximately 35 to 36 overs left in the days play at this point and most would have felt that the total of 160 was achievable for the home team to chase down if they had the intent to do so in the time available. Frustratingly for Orrell, after Duvindu Tillakaratne and Dominic Hayes took a wicket each to leave the home team 15-2, the hosts never consistently showed the willingness to chase down the total which also then made it harder for Orrell to take the 10 required wickets in the time left due to a defensive batting approach being assumed for most of the innnings. Try as Orrell might, with attacking fields set by Baybutt, apart from a couple of flurries, the home team never seriously attempted to reach the total and the game petered out to a draw as the hosts finished on 100-5 from 36 overs. Tillakaratne finishing with three wickets and a wicket apiece for Dominic Hayes and Arthur Moore.

It was a similar story back at Winstanley Road, as the second team welcomed Wavertree with the start time also delayed due to the weather. Winning the toss and batting first, Terry Leaford’s second team made a quickfire 175-4 declared in 33.4 overs off the back of 53 from Logan Pallett, 38 from Brett Taberner and a very impressive 61 not out from only 36 balls from Steve Unsworth. Despite having the visitors in all sorts of trouble at 15-5, a rearguard action saw the visitors finish on 79-7 from 32 overs to leave the match a draw. Harrison Hurst took three wickets, Greg Lea two wickets, Thomas Wilkinson one wicket and Alan Moore one wicket.

To round off a hat-trick of rain affected draws on the Saturday, Orrell’s third team drew against Birkenhead Park at the third team’s temporary home ground at Ormskirk. The visitors won the toss and elected to bat and made 189-5 declared from 44 overs. Phil Taberner took two wickets, there was 1 wicket for James Leyland (making a welcome return to bowling after an injury) and two wickets for Tom Such. Orrell made a good attempt to reach the winning total in the time available but finished on 160-6 from 37 overs. A number of batters made contributions but Taberner was the standout batter with 48.

On Sunday a weakened Orrell second team welcomed Premier League highflyers Ormskirk to Winstanley Road in the quarter-final of the Chester Cup. The visitors batted first and showed their class as they made 260-5 from their 45 overs. Arthur Moore took three wickets, James Edgington one wicket and Logan Pallett one wicket. After a steady start, the young Orrell batting lineup plummeted to 41-5 and any chance of victory all but disappeared at this point. A last wicket partnership of 70 between Edgington (34 not out) and Ben Connor (35) restored respectability to the innings as Orrell were all out for 132 to 39.1 overs.

Besides the Sunday cup game for the second team, there were also two regular Sunday games for the club. The Sunday Premier League team made the trip over into the Wirral to play Oxton. Winning the toss and batting first, George Mushahwar (standing in as captain for Mark Crumpton) saw his team make 175-8 declared in 43.1 overs. The stand in skipper (56) and James Leyland (50) making the major contributions. The home team made a strong start and looked to be favourites for the victory. However, Mushahwar kept the faith and wickets began to fall as the hosts went from 54-0 to 116 all out in 32.1 overs. George Berry took three wickets, Owen Stridgeon one wicket, Charlie Sarath three wickets, James Such one wicket and the skipper himself with two wickets to cap a fine all-round display including a good captaincy effort with effective rotation of the bowlers.

Also on Sunday, Emily James took her Sunday development team to play Southport Trinity. The home team batted first and posted a formidable 184-9 declared. The wickets for Orrell were shared around with three wickets for Georgia Warburton, two wickets for Reece Clarke, one wicket for Mike Abbott, one wicket for Zach Abbott, one wicket for Liam Caunce (a second wicket on only his second senior appearance) and a wicket for Ben Wilkinson on his senior debut. To chase down such a large total, looked improbable for a young and makeshift lineup. However, brothers Charlie Abbott (making a welcome return to the cricket field) with 88 and 62 from Zach Abbott saw Orrell win by four wickets with two overs of the day’s play left. A fine all round contribution from the Abbott family on Father’s Day to go alongside important contributions from the Wilkinson and Such families too across both Sunday teams.