Frustration as Park stall at final hurdle

BIRKENHEAD Park fell just short of victory over Wigan in a frantic and spicy last hour.

- BY TOM EVANS

Visiting captain Jordan Hampson’s defence was tested but not broken by Chris Stenhouse's final over, and the hosts’ cries of dismay when the last ball was blocked told a story.

The seventh wicket had fallen 12 overs earlier with the score 113, and with it went Wigan’s hopes of chasing 194 on a misbehaving pitch.

Park ended the more frustrated of the two sides, but the visitors had their chances.

Notably, and memorably, an explosive cameo from the Comp’s latest headline act, Ashutosh Sharma, threatened to carry the day.

Coming in at 31/3, the Delhi Capitals star flayed his first ball from Stenhouse through a gap invisible to everyone else on the field; his fifth, from the same bowler, disappeared over long-off.