MALVERN CC entertained Alvechurch in their Bank Holiday Monday league fixture and gained their second successive winning draw in a keenly contested match.

MALVERN v ALVECHURCH

Malvern captain Luke Halion lost the toss and Malvern were quickly in trouble at 2-2 losing both David Arnold and Keiran Calrelly for 0.

Mark Baugh and Mark Hooper steadied the innings with a partnership of 29 before Baugh was dismissed for a watchful 17. Hooper was joined by the ever improving Steven Carter and they added a priceless 77 runs for the fourth wicket. Hooper playing some effortless shots all round the wicket and Carter, after a good innings on Saturday, was in confident mood. Hooper finally fell for a superb 53, his first league 50, and there will surely be many more to come if he continues to bat in such a vein. Carter quickly followed for 30 and at 110-5 the innings was at a vital state.

As on Saturday, there followed a superb sixth wicket partnership, this time between Rob Francis and Jeremy Lee. Both players stroked the ball to all parts of the ground and their association yielded 70 runs to push Malvern towards a decent score, Adam Dovey's late flourish meant Malvern's total was 197-8.

Malvern quickly made inroads into the Alvechurch innings with Kevin Thompson particularly in impressive form.

At 32-4 Alvechurch were in trouble but Clifford and Wood's partnership was looking dangerous for Malvern util Carberry's fine diving catch ended Clifford's dangerous innings. Wood continued to hit out but the run rate was accelerating all the time and Alvechurch settled for a losing draw. Lee collecting three wickets but Thompson again with his mixture of seam and spin was the pick of the bunch.

Malvern collected 14 points and tomorrow (Saturday) travel to Cookley.