LEIGH visited Lytham on Saturday in a league match which they felt they must win, in order to halt a slide down the Liverpool Competition league table, and give themselves, the spectators, and the main sponsors (Leigh Racking Services) a boost.

However, Leigh had not accounted for Lytham's big guns as they set about the Leigh bowling from the first ball.

Overseas player Fulton and hard hitting Sainsbury went on the attack, with Sainsbury playing a big shot at every ball. Before long Sainsbury had reached his 50 from only 27 balls faced.

Fulton was by now almost a bystander, as every ball seemed to be going for four or six. Sainsbury had reached 90 from only 41 balls faced, before Colin Smith induced an error which saw Gareth Cross get underneath a steepling catch. A chance which Sainsbury gave first ball had proven so costly, as the score was 120 and there were only 12 overs gone.

The game returned to some sort of normality, but a large score seemed in inevitable with the remaining batsmen able to play their natural games with so much time still left. Sikander picked up a couple of wickets, however, Fulton passed his 50 before he too was dismissed.

Challenging

The Lytham batsmen chipped away on a field where anything which was hit through the infield went for four. Lytham chose to occupy the crease for 50 overs, eventually making an extremely challenging 252 for nine.

Sikander was the pick of the bowlers with five wickets, although an impromptu few overs of leg spin from Nigel Hallows saw him collect a wicket with a vicious leg spinner.

In reply, Leigh had 32 on the board before a flurry of wickets saw Leigh reduced to 40 for four and the game appeared out of reach. Iqbal Sikander and Andy Mullaney had other ideas, however, as they took the attack to the Lytham bowlers, adding a quickfire 50 partnership before Sikander drove hard and low but straight to extra cover.

Cross was unfortunate to be adjudged caught behind but this allowed Ronnie Davis and Andy Mullaney to take the score passed 100 and Leigh were still going at five an over.

The pressure was still on to maintain this momentum and despite valiant efforts, Mullaney was caught in the deep and Ronnie Davis caught behind, leaving Leigh in a perilous position.

The remaining batsmen could not do what the early order should have done, and that was occupy the crease for any length of time, and with 15 overs still remaining Potter was last man out with Leigh still a disappointing 86 runs adrift.

Six bonus points were the only consolation for Leigh.

Next week Leigh look to get back on track when they host title challengers Bootle at Beech Walk, wickets pitched at 1pm, and on Sunday, Leigh visit Ormskirk in the Chelmere Cup.