Marlborough 1sts
Marlborough 1sts lose to Marshfield by eight wickets
To the backdrop of the ‘Big Cricket Picnic‘ at the Savernake ground on Saturday last week the 1st team lost their WEPL Wiltshire division match to Marshfield, currently in second place in the division.
The visitors won the toss and elected to field. Marlborough captain Harrison Painter (29) and Olly Bendall (31) made a solid start with an opening partnership of 60. Wickets fell regularly through the middle order, but useful contributions from Connor Hetherton (45) and Zak Tunmore (27) saw the home side to a respectable 192-9 off their 50 overs.
In reply, Marshfield lost Calum Burnstone early for 1, caught by Painter off the bowling of Hetherton. But Max Bradley and Hugh Jackson looked solid and took the visitors past 100 before Bradley (62) fell to the bowling of Brad Whatley, caught by Freddie Walker.
The rain then came and with no more play possible, Marshfield were already ahead of their revised target of 74, winning by 8 wickets.
Marlborough 2nds
Marlborough 2s beat Christian Malford by 6 Wickets
The 2nd XI made it 3 wins in a row with an away victory at Christian Malford. With rain never far away, captain Nick Crabbe called successfully at the toss and elected to field.
New ball pair Chandan Vaishnav and Hassaan Asif got off to a scintillating start, reducing the hosts to 16-5 inside 8 overs, including the key wickets of Tom Dixon and Maxine Blythin, bowled by superb deliveries by Asif and Vaishnav respectively.
Rain delays and a nasty injury to one of the Christian Malford players halted the momentum, but Asif picked up his 5th wicket on the return, bowling Charlie Cadby for 13, with Christian Malford 37-6. Asif finished with the outstanding figures of 9-4-13-5, his maiden 5 wicket haul for the club.
Christian Malford’s lower order offered more resistance to the change bowling of Mohit Jaswal, Fraser Taylor and veteran seamer Simon Wells, managing partnerships of 37 for the 7th wicket and 70 for the 8th, with Jaswal and Zack Collister picking up the wickets. It had been tricky for the bowlers with continued delays reducing the game to 40 overs per side, and Christian Malford fought well to end on 142-8.
The 2s made a shaky start in reply, with Rohit Gurjar (3), Nick Crabbe (3) and Andy Crabbe (15) all falling in the first 10 overs, leaving the side 33-3. Pete Day and Hassaan Asif led the fightback, putting on 40 runs in 7 overs before Asif (28) was well caught by Blythin off the bowling of Damien Dixon.
With 70 runs still required, the pressure was all on incoming batsman Zach Collister, and he responded superbly. Watchful at first, Collister soon grew in confidence and began to assert his authority, accumulating quick runs without offering chances to an increasingly demoralised opposition.
Day and Collister took just 12 overs to reach the target, with Day finishing 34 not out and Collister, still only 15 years old, finishing unbeaten on 42, Marlborough winning by 6 wickets.
Marlborough 3rds
Marlborough 3rd XI were unable to make it back-to-back victories after suffering a 9-wicket defeat at high flying Shrivenham.
After the early loss of opener Tom Greatrex, Steve Jones and Niloy Saha forged a 50-run partnership. The ‘Trees’ could not build on this steady start and wickets began to tumble. The ball striking of Niloy (34) was the highlight as Marlborough were bowled out for 104 in the 37th over.
The hosts wasted no time in reply and chased down their target in the 13th over. An excellent catch from Ben Johnson off the bowling of Owen Bate to dismiss the Shrivenham opener was the only wicket to fall.
Marlborough 4ths
A guard of honour was given to Prasoon Sharma prior to the 4th XI match against Swindon Super Strikers 2s on his final appearance for the club. A committed member of the team – he will be missed.
In a pre-match team talk captain Govind Pahariya vowed “let’s win this for Prasoon.” The ‘Trees’ made a promising start with the captain himself taking the first three wickets to fall all caught behind by the wicketkeeper. Vinoth Kumar removed the dangerous Sujithraj lbw for 22.
Marlborough were in a good position having reduced their visitors to 152-7. However, a century stand for the seventh wicket saw the momentum swing in the visitor’s favour. Govind returned to take the final three wickets and six for the match – a Marlborough best as Swindon Super Strikers were dismissed for 295.
After a 90-minute rain delay Marlborough were set 222 off 28 overs for victory. Tight opening bowling from the visitors put pay to the hosts hopes. Debutant Ashok Priyadarshi made 52 and shared a century stand with Marlborough opener Nikhil Dutta – the highest partnership of the season to date. Marlborough reached 151-4 off 28 overs resulting in a 70-run defeat.
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