ECB National Club Championship final: Penzance skipper Wadlan unleashes his four-pronged pace attack on Ormskirk

Penzance CC celebrate winning the Cornwall Premier League 2025

They’ve dominated their league in recent years thanks to a big-scoring top order and a destructive seam attack.

Now they are looking to become the first club from their region to win the ECB National Club Championship.

Ormskirk might feel like they’re playing in a mirror when they line up against Penzance on Saturday.

Skipper Brad Wadlan has led his side to Lord’s in his first season in charge, and is confident they will do the Cornwall League proud.

They certainly raised a few eyebrows in their semi-final, flaying 410 runs in 40 overs against 2017 winners Wanstead & Snaresbrook. 

this weekend’s matches

latest tables

Batting & bowling stats

Opener Christian Purchase made 143 off 63 balls, Wadlan chipped in with 68 and there were rapid half-centuries for Josh Croom and Tommy Sturgess.

Spinner Wadlan and Pakistani seamer Mehran Sanwal then took three wickets each in reply, backed up by pacemen Sturgess, Croom and Tom Dinnis to seal a 179-run win.

“Everything came together that we had planned for,” said Wadlan, who says he uses video footage to study opponents in advance.

“Christian will deservedly take all the plaudits because it was an unbelievable innings, but throughout the innings we kept going and going and going, I was really pleased.

“We’ve had a new group of players this season and we’ve definitely gathered momentum, I’m really happy with how we’ve finished.”

Listen to the Last Hour cricket podcast

Wadlan believes Penzance’s four-pronged seam attack, all capable of topping 80mph, will ask the kind of questions Ormskirk may not be used to facing in a league which often favours accuracy over raw pace.

Sturgess played for Worcestershire in the One-Day Cup last year, Dinnis has National Counties experience, Sanwal has played 12 first-class matches in Pakistan and Croom, a tall left-armer, has been knocking on the door at Northamptonshire.

Wadlan said: “It’s very rare – I’ve not played in a team that has four front-line seamers who all bowl around that speed.”

When it comes to his research ahead of Saturday, Wadlan has been able to probe a fellow left-arm spinner, Ormskirk’s Toby Bulcock, who he knows from his own time in the National Counties game.

“Me and Toby get on well,” he said. “I know a fair bit about Ormskirk and I guess my job is to sort of know as much as possible, then to drip feed that to our team and to give them sort of bits of information rather than overload them.”

from Merseyside Cricket Online https://ift.tt/86QHtW3