AN ALL too familiar middle order batting collapse effectively cost Leigh CC their chance of winning their game at Brook Lane against Ormskirk.

The Leigh batsmen found it difficult to cope with the pace of West Indian test player Adam Sanford and they were disappointingly all out for 127 in just over two hours.

Seventeen-year-old Steve Mullaney had the honour of leading the side because of Dave Dove's absence due to injury and must surely have been Leigh's youngest ever first XI captain, his side containing seven players under the age of 21.

Mullaney celebrated his promotion by scoring an impressive 49 off 50 balls. He was fifth man out with the score on 88, the second of three wickets to fall at this score, with only Neil Williams (11) and Gareth Cross (15) offering much opposition against Sanford apart from himself.

Avi Aware resisted well for 22 not out and last man Alex Roussak scored 8 before being run out. Sanford bowled unchanged and claimed 7 for 55 off 16 overs with wicketkeeper Burns taking four catches off his bowling.

Aware and Davis opened the bowling for Leigh and bowled immaculately and Ormskirk were almost completely tied down as they struggled to the tea break with the score on 28 for 3 off 19 overs.

Their virtually immovable opening batsman Mike Taylor was still there however and in partnership with Phil Unsworth took the score to 66 before being trapped leg before by Greg Jennings after scoring 29 off 104 balls.

Unsworth, having so often in the past troubled Leigh with his bowling, showed off his batting talents and Sanford joined him and took the game by the scruff of the neck with some powerful strokeplay. These two guided their side to victory without further mishap with Unsworth scoring 37 and Sanford 41 including a colossal six hit which cleared the clubhouse.

Leigh's bowlers, who have shown much more consistency than the batsmen this season, toiled hard without much luck. Aware took 2 for 16 off 12.1 overs, Davis 1 for 39 off 14 (after taking 1 for 19 off 12 overs in a fine opening spell) and Jennings 1 for 10 off 6.

Leigh's next game is at home to New Brighton who have now slipped to the bottom of the league and will be desperately trying to upset the odds and escape relegation.