Report and photos: Peter Rogan

Ormskirk won the toss and elected to bat, but things did not go according to plan in the opening overs as the two batsmen found their ways back to the pavilion with only 8 runs on the board...

Alex Rankin (6) was first to go when he was caught by Patrick Howley off the bowling of Joshua Boyden and the same bowler caught and bowled George Politis (1).

The loss of those two wickets brought together George Lavelle and Gary Knight for a third wicket partnership of 67 runs. It was broken when Lavelle (36) lost his wicket to a catch at mid-wicket bringing in Harvey Rankin to join Gary.

This partnership, however, was short lived. Unfortunately, the good form Harvey (2) displayed in last week’s game at Newton-le- Willows abandoned him and he was bowled with the second delivery he received.

Rob Rankin came in at number 6 to join Gary Knight who, at this point, had 30 runs to his name and was looking to be in good form. They put on 77 runs together before the partnership was broken when Rankin (27) was caught bringing in James Bone to join Knight who was now on 78 and looked to be heading for a century.

When he reached 90, however, he was out to a catch and although he and the Ormskirk supporters were despondent at his dismissal, all in the ground were appreciative of the fine innings he had played to steer his team through a very shaky start to a respectable 181-6.

When Sam Marsh came in to join Bone the score moved on apace and 42 runs were added before James Bone (21) was run out. Marsh shared partnerships with Zahir Shehzad (3) and Scott Lees (6) and took his personal tally to 50* off 47 balls when the innings closed with a declaration of 260 - 8.

The Wigan reply started with an opening partnership of 23 when Jamie Barnes took the wicket of Charles Taylor (12) with the aid of a great catch by Rob Rankin. The second wicket was taken by Zahir Shehzad with the score on 44 having Joe Borrows (15) trapped lbw and the third quickly followed when Sam Marsh had Jake Leyland (10) caught behind by George Lavelle.

Wickets started to fall at regular intervals, with the main damage being done by Shehzad ably supported by James Bone at the other end. They gave the batsmen no comfort and it became inevitable that to bat a winning score of 261 with 7 wickets down at 113 was beyond Wigan’s reach. They needed to rely on tail end batsmen to stay in for the final 20 overs and avoid defeat so as to deprive Ormskirk of victory. That did not happen and with 5 overs to spare the last wicket fell with the score on 159.

The successful bowlers were Shehzad (5-69), Bone (2-35), Marsh (1-15) and Barnes (1-22) - the final wicket was the result of a run out when the two batsmen Edward Hurst and Adam Samouelle, when chasing a short single, collided with each other leaving both flat out on the ground. With both stranded, Samouelle was run out by Gary Knight.

'Man of the Match' was Gary Knight for his innings of 90 runs which set the seeds for victory closely followed by Zahir Shehzad for his fourth 5 wicket haul in this season's league games.