WOOTTON BASSETT v COLWALL

DESPITE another patchy performance, Colwall managed to earn a valuable narrow win at Wootton Bassett.

The home side won the toss and decided to bat first on a dry and cracking pitch. Colwall made reasonable early progress with Majeed removing Twine and Chattell to leave Wootton 35-2. From this point onwards, Leach and Challal took control of the Colwall attack. They added 100 for the third wicket to put Wootton in a very strong position. The visitors did not help themselves during the partnership by dropping four catches.

However, the introduction of Andy Sutton into the attack turned the match around. He bowled both Leach for 46 and Challal for 52 and took two further wickets in a brilliant spell of 4-12 in six overs.

Dave Sutton (2-48) and Majeed further restricted the end of the Wootton innings as they lost their last eight wickets for only 30 runs. They were dismissed for 165 in the 49th over with Majeed having overall figures of 4-28 from 12 overs.

With bounce on the wearing pitch getting lower and lower, Colwall knew they would have an awkward task. They started badly losing Majeed and Tom Wolfendale to leave them at 20-2. However, Pete Butler and David Powell patiently set about building the innings adding 52 until Powell was dismissed for 21. Tim Riley joined Butler and the innings steadily progressed to 90-3, when Riley, Josh Hornyold and Steve Ferguson were dismissed in quick succession to leave Colwall in trouble at 94-6.

Butler found steady support from Jordan Kontarines and the game started to swing back in favour of Colwall. The pair added 45 for the seventh wicket until Butler was finally dismissed for a fine 70.

With Kontarines being removed for 27 and Andy Sutton dismissed shortly after the game swung again with Colwall being left on 156-9 still needing 10 runs with six overs left.

Off spinner Lee Stevens had taken these three wickets and was causing Colwall all sorts of difficulty. However, Dave Sutton and Damian Berry dug in and slowly clawed their way towards the target. With only three balls remaining, Berry smashed a four off Barton to finally steer Colwall home.